Recent reports on how AI is beginning to overwhelm academe and supplant students’ complete cognitive understanding fill me with deep unrest. Have a question or a problem? Ask AI. The clear and distinct danger is that people will make decisions without understanding WHY those outcomes are correct.

Years ago, our daughter passed Year 11 with distinction. Imagine our surprise when she asked to repeat Year 11. She explained that while excelling, she did not understand why she was succeeding; that something was missing within the cognitive equation and learning process. She repeated year eleven, gained the insights she had been missing earlier, was very successful in year 12, then went on to earn excellent tertiary qualifications in the fields of science and education.

Over-reliance on AI to provide solutions that are not in line with the questions asked will lead to an explosion of mediocrity in understanding among professionals and skilled workers.  That will be a catastrophe.

It is one thing to give the correct answers and another to understand why.