Clay Shirky leads AI efforts at New York University, and in recent months he’s had faculty approach him with a complaint: The advice he gave them on how to teach with AI wasn’t working. Meanwhile an anonymous NYU student posted a plea on Reddit saying he couldn’t stop himself from using AI on homework even though it was stopping him from learning. So Shirky is pivoting, looking for new ways to change assessments and encourage more social interactions among students.
Clay Shirky leads NYU’s AI efforts, and his background is as a media theorist commenting on how tech changes society. During the rise of social media 20 years ago, he was giving TED talks and writing popular books on how digital tech was altering our world.
To his surprise, though, he says that background in earlier tech revolutions hasn’t been much help in figuring out how college professors should adapt to AI. This tech is different, he says, and NYU is now pivoting from the early advice they offered on the technology.
Articles mentioned in this episode:
“AI Is a ‘Wicked Problem.’ That’s the University’s Specialty,” By Clay Shirky in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
“Students Are Skipping the Hardest Part of Growing Up,” by Clay Shirky in The New York Times.
“Can’t Stop Using ChatGPT on HW,” Reddit post, now deleted but on the Internet Archive.
“Guilty about using AI but don’t know how not to,” Reddit post.
“The Souls of the Machine: Clay Shirky says the Internet revolution has only just begun,” by Jeff Young in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
"AI Homework," by Ben Thompson.
“‘We don’t need to panic’: Clay Shirky on NYU’s approach to AI,” in Washington Square News.
“Inside the MIT Report on How AI Is Eroding Campus Culture,” Learning Curve Season 2 Ep. 1
“The AI Optimist Researching ‘Cognitive Surrender’,” Learning Curve Season 1 Ep. 21
“A Question of Signaling,” by Bryan Kaplan.
“The wicked problem of AI and assessment,” in Assessment & Evaluation in Education.
“Good Anxiety: Harnessing the Power of the Most Misunderstood Emotion,” by Wendy Suzuki.