Looking for solutions to what they claim is a fundamentally broken public education system, wealthy families are sending their offspring to institutions called Alpha Schools, a private school network that’s putting AI-based tutoring front and center for an eye-searing cost of $75,000 a year.
But the kind of education students are being exposed to is nothing short of bizarre, if the latest reporting is anything to go by, turning them into guinea pigs in a game set up by a dystopian enterprise that’s allegedly trying to revolutionize schooling with tech like AI.
The situation is even more dire than it sounded at first. Thanks to the extensive reporting of education policy writer and cognitive scientist Benjamin Riley, we know that kids are being pitted against each other based on their ability to complete rote assignments, are being monitored by individuals employed at offshore call centers through their school laptop webcams — and even told to wear heart rate monitors while their work is critiqued in class.
According to Riley’s latest update, which includes the testaments of Alpha School alumni, students recall being monitored like a “lab rat” through their computers — not by an AI but by presumably cheap labor from across the pond.
