Episode 2169: Why Both Teachers and Students Need AI
“We don’t need no education”, Pink Floyd announced in 1979. “Teachers leave those kids alone”:
We don't need no educationWe don’t need no thought controlNo dark sarcasm in the classroomTeachers leave them kids aloneHey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!
But today, almost half a century later, That Was The Week newsletter publisher Keith Teare believes that technology might be radically reinventing education and healing the historically fraught relationship between teachers and kids. Today, Keith argues in this week’s newsletter, kids like his 17-year old son are discovering that they love AI as a co-creative tool for educating themselves. And 21st century teachers too, he suggests, can reinvent themselves from annoying pedagogues into helpful guides to new AI technology. In other words:
You don’t need a weatherman to tell which way the AI wind is blowing
All You Need is OpenAI and Anthropic.
Keith Teare is the founder and CEO of SignalRank Corporation. Previously, he was executive chairman at Accelerated Digital Ventures Ltd., a U.K.-based global investment company focused on startups at all stages. Teare studied at the University of Kent and is the author of “The Easy Net Book” and “Under Siege.” He writes regularly for TechCrunch and publishes the “That Was The Week” newsletter.
Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.
Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe
Episode 2257: Kishore Mahbubani offers an undiplomatic introduction to our Asian Century
Episode 2256: David Kirkpatrick on his twenty year odyssey from digital idealist to sceptic
Episode 2255: Frank Vogl on whether Donald Trump 2.0 will be a semi-legal repeat of the Sam Bankman-Fried/FTX debacle
Episode 2254: Steven Levy on what has and hasn't surprised him about the last twenty years of tech history
Episode 2253: Andrew Keen revisits Cult of the Amateur
Episode 2252: Can the AI revolution decentralize our politics, culture and economy?
Episode 2251: Steven Robinson on how a band of activists beat Donald Trump and saved New York's West Side
Episode 2250: :John Markoff compares Steve Jobs with contemporary tech titans like Sam Altman and Elon Musk
Episode 2249: Peter Wehner on how American self-renewal is a wonder of the world
Episode 2248: F.H. Buckley on the case for Trumpism
Episode 2247: David Masciotra on how the Boss and the Dude can save America
Episode 2246: Jonathan Rauch on the catastrophic ordinariness of contemporary America
Episode 2245: Elon Musk, Silicon Valley and the Reinvention of American Government