The First Phase of the GenAI revolution

In this first phase of the generative AI revolution, we’re all learning how to use it.

Even those that call themselves experts are just poking around, figuring out what works and what doesn’t.

Eventually, we’ll get past this phase. The majority of us will know the basis of how to interact with a model like GPT or Claude, etc.

What does life look like then? We’re so fascinated right now that we aren’t thinking about the impact.

The question I seek to answer over the next few years as a researcher is what education, training, and coaching look like after we’ve all adopted generative AI (to some degree) in our work.

That’s the second phase.

I’m super interested in the second phase right now. Much more than I am fascinated by this first phase (and believe me, I’m thoroughly fascinated by this first phase).

In the second phase, the majority of teachers generate customized and targeted lesson plans for their students. Cool. Maybe AI will get good enough to grade assignments reliably. Cool. Students will find ways to outsource their work to GPT if they are motivated to do so. Cool cool cool.

A student asked me the other day: “what happens when we’re completing all of our work using AI and you’re grading it using AI? Where does that leave us?”

The thing is… this may seem like it’s a world that’s far away at the moment, and only the most technologically adaptive teachers are doing this kind of thing right now.

But Phase 2 is closer than you think.

A year ago, I could not find anyone else that truly saw what I saw, and understood the impact models like ChatGPT would have on education and the world.

Now, it’s a lot more common to find people that get it.

The tech will become ubiquitous in phase 2.

We have to think about what student engagement, assessment, and creativity look like.

We have to reimagine the classroom.

We must experiment responsibly.

Not tomorrow.

Today.