30+ Years of Ed Tech: 2025 – AI Ennui

I wasn’t going to do my annual 25/30 years of ed tech post this year, partly because I’m no longer in that field as much, but also because AI is still the only game in town, and I’m just bored of it. But then I thought that I wasn’t the only one, and that sense of being tired and wary of AI is now much more prevalent. So that is the the theme for this year.

Last year it was AI slop and 2022 was AI itself. So this year sees the logical further development in that trend. After all the hype and the ‘meh’ content being spewed out, people are getting tired of it. Added to that, there is an impending AI bubble about to burst, companies trying to force AI into every niche of their products whether you want it or not, and also evidence that it doesn’t give quite the returns that were promised.

I expect you will have your own area where AI really gets your goat. Mine is the way in which it has pretty much destroyed social media. I use Instagram for personal and vinyl account. It seems that at least half of the feed is AI slop now. A shark chasing a polar bear, a cave that a couple converted to a cosy home, a brave kid saving his sister (these were just some I saw yesterday). All of it AI. What is the point? At the moment I can just about spot them, but soon it will be impossible. The feeling this engenders is one of ennui. I want to see what people are sharing, generally it has to be real to have any meaning (I’m excluding deliberate digital art here).

In every meeting someone will be obliged to ask “what about AI?” Every skill is being made to make its defence against AI. It’s exhausting. And not very productive. For all the talk of AI increasing efficiency, the extra effort required to combat AI, to undo its damage is far more. Whether it’s flooding Etsy with AI generated content, ruining the discussion in Reddit, AI music generating significant hits on Spotify, AI generated books swamping Amazon, or AI articles overwhelming journals, dealing with it requires continual effort. Like climate change, it seems the sacrifices and labour to offset its damage falls to individuals, rather than Governments, legislation or institutions. And people are just fed up with it. And this is before we get on to misinformation, surveillance, and all that fun dystopia stuff.

I’ll put in the usual proviso. I accept that AI is here to stay. It can be useful. It can be fun. But dude, chill out for a bit on the AI for everything ok?

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