AI School Hooking Children Up to Heart Monitor in Front of Class While Playing Critiques of Their Work
"It's pretty clear that there's an absence of any moral compass at all." The post AI School Hooking Children Up to Heart Monitor in Front of Class While Playing Critiques of Their Work appeared first on Futurism .
Education policy writer and cognitive scientist Benjamin Riley recently scrutinized Alpha School, a privately-run K-12 institution in the United States that incorporates AI into its teaching methodology. In a scathing article, Riley shed light on the peculiar methods employed by the school to evaluate prospective students.
To secure a place at Alpha School, high school students must endure an eight-week "bootcamp," a rigorous initiation process. As part of this bootcamp, prospective students are required to establish a new account on X (formerly Twitter), accumulate at least 100 genuine followers, and purchase X Premium while posting replies that garner positive responses from accounts with "real substance".
In addition, students are subjected to a heart rate challenge wherein they are hooked up to live monitors during class and required to maintain their resting heart rate within 10 percent of their baseline, facing failure if their rate exceeds 88 beats per minute.
The educational rationale behind these tasks remains unclear, with one student explaining that the aim is to demonstrate their worthiness to attend the school. Another aspect of the bootcamp involves Alpha School students completing unpaid labor, such as cleaning restaurant kitchens or gas-station bathrooms, to test their resilience and work ethic. These unpaid tasks are documented by students who must narrate their duties, with any negative comments resulting in an automatic failure.
Furthermore, students are expected to complete an entire Advanced Placement course unit in the absence of a teacher – instead, relying on AI chatbots – and pass an exam within five days. One 14-year-old student recounted being required to survive in an unfamiliar wilderness area for three days with only three bags of rice and a tent for support.
When contacted for comment, Alpha School expressed concern over the publication's reporting of minor students' activities, urging the writer to consider the ethical implications. However, educator and writer Audrey Watters dismissed Alpha School's promises as nothing more than empty rhetoric, stating that the school's reliance on artificial intelligence for high-quality education is nothing more than a "science fiction" concept.
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