Education Secretary Wants 'A1' in Classrooms | Hacker News Reader

Education Secretary Wants 'A1' in Classrooms

latintimes.com

68 pointsbelter44 comments

Soon, critical thinking may vanish from education for most kids. The wealthy will keep real teachers, while poor students get limited AI holograms—all to cut costs and keep taxes low for the top 0.01%.

Don't forget that the profit also goes to the 0.01% because there's nothing to trickle down to.

Suvins and stabils, burgers and slines, straight out of Neal Stephenson's _Anathem_.

On the other hand there's the AI primer from the Diamond Age.

True! Or the school system from Ready Player One.

I get A5 and A4 perfectly good. A3 is acceptable for arts. So is A2, albeit getting big and that takes time to work on. But A1? That is half a square meter. Quite a lot to force kids to deal with. What next A0 for entire square meter? Or A-1? That would be 4 times the A1...

what the US lost by not adopting the A system hurts my soul.

A1? In classrooms? Criminal! Kids should be taught that a good steak doesn't need A1 sauce!

I was in my 20's before I learned this. Public education really let me down.

They can mix it with ketchup (which, according to Reagan is a vegetable) to make a balanced, nutritious meal.

I mean have you tried the cafeteria steak? They're not doing medium rare filet back there.

Fair point!

This is so embarrassing.. What is this country doing?

Not as embarrassing as HN flagging it

Of all the things going on now, a slip of the tongue seems pretty benign, doubly so compared to the CONTENT of the message in question which is somewhat alarming (albeit inevitable). George W. Bush would crank out far more nonsensical phrases on a weekly basis, Reagan was a mumbling goon, Nixon was a lunatic.

People who think that we just woke up to find that politics was messy and full of incompetence baffle me. It's possible to believe that Trump is a disaster and still keep a measure of objectivity.

Saying 'A1' is not a gaffe - that's the mistake of someone who literally has no idea what they're talking about.

I have some bad news for you... most people in tech don't know what they're talking about regarding "AI", never mind politicians.

There's a wide berth between ignorance of how a thing works at a deeper level and true useful/societal applications, and simply being ignorant of its what it is entirely.

It's like hating social media in 2003 because MySpace was being used by pedophiles to target minors vs not understanding WTF it is entirely. The former is reductionist, but it was something that indicated one is aware of its presence, what it looks like, how it functions at a basic level, etc, that could be used to springboard further discussions.

The fact that someone who is in charge of public policy is so wildly ignorant of something they allege they'll implement, in a public speech, is shocking, and should draw no parallels to even the most basic get rich quick tech bros.

I could see someone making that mistake if they misread off of a notecard or teleprompter.

I have some sympathy though. I habitually mix up "SEO" and "CEO" (and I do one of those things as a full time job). I don't have dyslexia - it's only those 2 acronyms I constantly mix up, but only when talking out loud or thinking in my head, never when writing.

To be pedantic she repeated it several times...Face it, A1 will come for your job.

My stomach is ready

Slip of tongue several times while speaking about the subject for several minutes? Okay!

To add to your point, we elected George W. Bush again after hearing four years of his gibberish (and after he, you know, starting a devastating war). That was 20 year ago.

Maybe try pairing it with AMD's new Al aluminum CPUs. https://www.amd.com/en/products/processors/laptop/ryzen/ai-3...

Wait, am I reading this wrong, or is she seriously proposing replacing kindergarteners with A1?

I want her hauled in front of a real Judge for breaking Federal Laws.

How do you make billions and not know the difference between a upper case / lower case letter "i" and the numeral "1"?

1 vs I is a reading error anyone could make on seeing something for the first time. The real question is how do you be a national leader and go on stage to discuss "AI" with so little understanding of it that you don't detect your misreading, and so little to say about it other than we're going to start using it. The answer is that this administration's members aren't chosen for competence, they are chosen for loyalty and grift.

Al Pacino coming to a classroom near you

Or Paul Simon - You Can Call Me Al ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq-gYOrU8bA

I haven’t used a1 steak sauce in a while

There's a chance it's a stupid publicity stunt. It would not be the first time a republican would do something like that, but almost every time it happens on Twitter. Compared to how bad the idea itself is, maybe we can save some energy by ignoring the A1 part.

I also wish our children all have an A1 day in their classrooms!

A1 is outdated technology. The Chinese are already on A2.

If A1 is so great, how come they never made A2?

There are many better BBQ sauces. A1 is for cube steak and other trash.

I thought it was called Al

How would you like to be Education Secretary? You appear to be more qualified than Linda McMahon.

I have kids and I would like to not see education in this country dismantled, so yeah, I'd be interested in the job. But can I work remotely? I don't want to uproot them to move to DC.

Next best thing may be your local school board. They tend to collect crazies who are just using it as a stepping stone to a higher power political career, so having somebody involved who cares about doing the actual job is often very appreciated buy teachers.

At least where I live most education funding is not federal anyhow, so total dismantling isn't imminent whatever the feds like to think.

Maybe in a meritocracy...

They're serving steak in schools these days?

To be fair - she’s 76. Go and ask your grandma what AI is and see what you get.

Now why that person’s in charge of education is beyond me

Wait! I thought President Trump was getting ride of the Department of Education. How is there still an Education Secretary?

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