Profs in Wisconsin Worry They Could be Replaced by AI Chat Bots
“Officials proposed a policy this fall that would give the university system the copyright of any instructional materials, including syllabi.”
There will come a point where professors all over the country will share this concern.
Inside Higher Ed reports:
In Wisconsin, Professors Worry AI Could Replace Them
Faculty at the cash-strapped Universities of Wisconsin System are pushing back against a proposed copyright policy they believe would cheapen the relationship between students and their professors and potentially allow artificial intelligence bots to replace faculty members.
For decades, professors have designed and delivered their courses under a policy that says the 25-campus UW System “does not assert a property interest in materials which result from the author’s pursuit of traditional teaching, research, and scholarly activities.” That includes course materials and syllabi, which faculty members own.
It’s an arrangement faculty say is working, not only for themselves but for their students. But now the university is looking to upend that system, they say. Officials proposed a policy this fall that would give the university system the copyright of any instructional materials, including syllabi.
Under the proposed policy, which was first reported by The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel earlier this week, copyright ownership of “scholarly works,” which includes lecture notes, course materials, recordings, journal articles and syllabi, would originate with the UW System, “but is then transferred to the author.” However, the system’s general counsel told faculty Nov. 22, “the UWs reserve a non-exclusive license to use syllabi in furtherance of its business needs and mission.”
That letter from the general counsel was in response to an open letter more than 10 faculty union leaders sent to the UW System administration Nov. 1 opposing the policy change, characterizing the “elimination of faculty ownership of their syllabi, course materials, and other products of their labor” as “a drastic and deeply problematic redefinition of the employment contract between faculty and UW.”
The policy proposal is not yet final and is open for public comment through Dec. 13. It’s unclear what will happen after that, as the UW System did not respond to Inside Higher Ed’s specific questions about the policy approval process or when it may go into effect.
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Comments
Many teachers at community college level could be replaced by bots. Pandemic lockdown forced the conversion of courses to online format. Now lazy teachers increasingly use pre-recorded off the shelf video lectures, not live zoom classes, to review the assigned reading material. Students take open book multiple choice quizzes on their own computer, that can be automatically graded. Everything is automated. The human teacher has already been replaced, except for answering questions by email or phone. One live in person final exam at the end of the course can be proctored by anybody.
I would be more sympathetic if the academics weren’t actively destroying what’s good about America.
Anyone who thinks that they aren’t needs to read up on it.
They are. Marxists have infiltrated and now are running the show.
At this point, it’s strictly down to the cost effectiveness as to whose hallucinations you choose to have driven into your kids’ heads.