Thanks for this thoughtful and sane post. In re your mention of Friends in the video clip: I think the theory that its pre-ubiquitous-tech landscape appeals is an interesting one. Another anecdatal point: This semester I had no fewer than three students (out of some 60 total) write about their watching of/admiration for Dead Poets Society. For all of its melodrama, that 37-year-old film about a time 70 years in the past also shows an idealized/fetishized type of engaged classroom experience that must seem pretty remote today.
(Also, most students first encountered the film in clips on TikTok).
I must have responded to this elsewhere, but I love this comment -- and have literally been watching the entire Peter Weir filmography over the past month. "Witness" is another film that explores a culture that protects itself from technologies they see as anti-social. This also makes for interesting and related reading: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/03/opinion/public-schools-politics-democracy-minnesota.html
Study Mode was always a sham - a sop from the companies as a lame response to the reality of student use. It's clear they are not especially concerned about how students use their product. Someone has to step in to fill that role because as long as they have unfettered access to it, it will continue to be an issue. And, for the record, Dead Poet's society is not how most classrooms work ... :)
Yeah, what's a little odd is them removing the sham! And I think the point is that the DPS vibe is looking more appealing nowadays to many...there really is a yearning among some (many? most?) kids for life before the Internet.
Thank you for this post! I'm halfway through the recording of your conversation with James Donovan from OpenAI. What a revealing contrast it is between the marketing branch of OpenAI ("we have all this data" --> ha, the irony!) and an educator who understands how LLMs work and how commercial chatbot interfaces clearly function as cognitive offloading and cognitive surrender. It's really just like the cigarette industry: they know their products are harmful and addictive, but their marketing figureheads proclaim the exact opposite. Thank you for being out there and creating such a strong counter-perspective!
Ah thanks for reading and listening, Christa! To be fair, James Donovan is in the research division of OpenAI and seems to genuinely be leading studies of the education impact of ChatGPT (such as the Estonian one). But, as I note in the debate, the studies don't matter! They've already released the tool, and 400 million kids are using it! Anyway, appreciate your encouraging words.
Ah, thanks for that correction. I was a little sloppy in my assumptions about Donovan. He still comes across like the marketing department, though, especially in grounding his chatbot use case in language that mimics what educators and ed administrators might mistake as legit.
The phrase “units of intelligence” is the perfect brainchild of corporate bloat and Scientism. You have to admire the confidence to say something so meaningless with such gusto!
Thanks for this thoughtful and sane post. In re your mention of Friends in the video clip: I think the theory that its pre-ubiquitous-tech landscape appeals is an interesting one. Another anecdatal point: This semester I had no fewer than three students (out of some 60 total) write about their watching of/admiration for Dead Poets Society. For all of its melodrama, that 37-year-old film about a time 70 years in the past also shows an idealized/fetishized type of engaged classroom experience that must seem pretty remote today.
(Also, most students first encountered the film in clips on TikTok).
I must have responded to this elsewhere, but I love this comment -- and have literally been watching the entire Peter Weir filmography over the past month. "Witness" is another film that explores a culture that protects itself from technologies they see as anti-social. This also makes for interesting and related reading: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/03/opinion/public-schools-politics-democracy-minnesota.html
Really enjoyed this article, thank you!
Study Mode was always a sham - a sop from the companies as a lame response to the reality of student use. It's clear they are not especially concerned about how students use their product. Someone has to step in to fill that role because as long as they have unfettered access to it, it will continue to be an issue. And, for the record, Dead Poet's society is not how most classrooms work ... :)
Yeah, what's a little odd is them removing the sham! And I think the point is that the DPS vibe is looking more appealing nowadays to many...there really is a yearning among some (many? most?) kids for life before the Internet.
Ben, the interview was great, I really appreciated your composure and poignancy there.
And I would really like to see “the data” your opponent was talking about. :)
Ah thanks so much, and yep, I'd like to see it too -- though even then, OpenAI has a history of presenting its data in...shall we say...unusual ways!
https://buildcognitiveresonance.substack.com/p/dont-stop-believin-in-openai
Thank you for this post! I'm halfway through the recording of your conversation with James Donovan from OpenAI. What a revealing contrast it is between the marketing branch of OpenAI ("we have all this data" --> ha, the irony!) and an educator who understands how LLMs work and how commercial chatbot interfaces clearly function as cognitive offloading and cognitive surrender. It's really just like the cigarette industry: they know their products are harmful and addictive, but their marketing figureheads proclaim the exact opposite. Thank you for being out there and creating such a strong counter-perspective!
Ah thanks for reading and listening, Christa! To be fair, James Donovan is in the research division of OpenAI and seems to genuinely be leading studies of the education impact of ChatGPT (such as the Estonian one). But, as I note in the debate, the studies don't matter! They've already released the tool, and 400 million kids are using it! Anyway, appreciate your encouraging words.
Ah, thanks for that correction. I was a little sloppy in my assumptions about Donovan. He still comes across like the marketing department, though, especially in grounding his chatbot use case in language that mimics what educators and ed administrators might mistake as legit.
The phrase “units of intelligence” is the perfect brainchild of corporate bloat and Scientism. You have to admire the confidence to say something so meaningless with such gusto!