Lately I have been reading a lot about AI. Everybody seems to have an opinion. It’s either completely revolutionary or its total garbage. There do not seem to be many moderate voices in the opinion pool. Personally, I think AI is useful in some situations, but it isn’t everything about the learning designer’s role.
The Extreme Views
I have paraphrased some of the quotes that are representative of statements I have read or heard.
On one end of the spectrum is the hype about how revolutionary it is:
- “AI will revolutionise everything about how we live and work in the next 2 years.”
- “AI can create whole courses in minutes with no skill required.”
- “The whole software industry will be gutted within 2 years. No one will buy software any more since they can vibe code their own.”
- ”Anyone in L and D who isn’t completely changing everything about how they approach their work will be left behind.”
On the other end of the spectrum is the view that everything about AI is garbage, and that AI is just a passing fad.
- “I’ll never use AI in my work.”
- “If I see someone share an AI generated image, I immediately block them.,”
- “Why are we even talking about AI? The whole thing is a nonsense that will be gone in a year or two like any other shifty thing.”
- “Everything AI produces is garbage.”
A moderate take on AI
What I don’t see much of is the middle views. Of course, there are some … I do follow mainly rational folks who share more balanced opinions. But these views don’t get as much reader time as the extreme views. Based on our experience at modlettes, we have a moderate take on AI. We find ourselves working in the middle ground. There are genuinely practical uses for AI in improving efficiency and expanding capabilities right now. And we can see larger changes in the future too, so I think we need to be looking ahead at the long term potential