BUSINESS NEWS LESSONS

Has relying on tech affected the way

we learn?
1 Warmer

a. Discuss the questions.

1. For what daily tasks and activities do you rely on technology?

2. What examples do you predict to find in the article of tech making us more stupid?

3. How do you think our use of technology has affected how we learn and remember new things?

4. Do you think there should be limits to what technology can be used for? Give examples to support
your opinion.

5. Do you think the consequences of our tech habits are overall more positive or negative?

2 Find the information

a. Skim the article to find different words or ideas that support the title of the article.

3 Key words

a. Read the definitions and find key words in the article that match them. The paragraph number
is given in brackets to help you.
Check your answers and your understanding of how the words are used by using the same
word to complete the example sentence immediately after each definition.
Then read the complete article to see how each of the key words is used in context.

1. gradually reduce the strength or importance of something (subtitle)

His popularity was gradually by rumours that spread through

the office.

2. something that makes it more difficult for someone to do something or more difficult for something

to happen (paragraph 2)

The rising cost of fuel was an to the success of their

logistics business.

3. a way of saving time or effort in doing something, often a method that produces a result that is not
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good enough (paragraph 2)

We had a presentation the next day, so we thought we could reuse old slides as a

, but our plan backfired.

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4. remember ideas or information (paragraph 2)

The test showed that the group of students only 30% of the

information they had read the previous week.

5. a time when an important change takes place in a situation, especially one that makes it better

(two words, paragraph 5)

The invention of Intel’s Pentium M microchip was an in tech history.

6. hard, boring work (two words, paragraph 5)

My first year as an intern, I had to do all the and received none of

the credit.

7. avoid accepting or dealing with something that you should do (paragraph 5)

The warehouse team barely disaster after a severe snowstorm hit

the area.

8. learn something thoroughly so that you know it or can do it very well (paragraph 7)

Even after a year of using the new design software, Phoebe felt like she had still not

it.

9. a period of time between two events (paragraph 8)

It is important to step away from your desk and stretch at regular

throughout the day.

10. a set of rules for solving problems or doing calculations, especially rules that a computer uses
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(paragraph 8)

There is some concern that might increase discrimination if they are

not correctly and inclusively programmed.

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 BUSINESS NEWS LESSONS

11. add something to something else to make it bigger or more satisfactory (two words, paragraph 9)

They wanted to their product offer by making the bags available in

three more colours.

12. a situation that involves a lot of risk or serious consequences (two words, paragraph 9)

They have scheduled a meeting to examine our tax compliance.

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 BUSINESS NEWS LESSONS

Has relying on tech made us more stupid?

LEANING TOO HEAVILY ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CAN ERODE OUR TOLERANCE FOR THE REPETITIVE
ACTIONS THAT HELP US ACTUALLY LEARN

DAVE LEE

1 I was driving home from Palo Alto to San Francisco, 6 Is the student cheating? You could argue convincingly
a journey I’d done dozens upon dozens of times in either direction. It’s maybe simpler to ask whether
before. Only this time, I faced a problem: a phone the student is cheating themselves, to which the
without power; a journey without GPS. I missed my answer is surely yes. Those things students don’t
exit and became hopelessly lost in streets less than want to do are what underpin retention. Writing,
a mile from my home. How embarrassing: I claim to rethinking, retaining, over and over.
love this city, and yet in that moment I felt I barely
knew it. Suddenly deprived of my tech, I was unable 7 Practice makes perfect. We’ve all heard of the
to find my way, because I had never needed to “10,000 hours rule” – the amount of intensive practice
actually learn it. supposedly needed to master something – but we
have many ways to make the same point: repetition
2 I’m not arguing against the use of GPS. But I bring means remembering. Remembering means learning
it up to demonstrate that efficient technology can and mastering.
be an impediment to learning. Only through effort
and repetition, without shortcuts, can we truly retain 8 Hermann Ebbinghaus, a psychologist who
useful knowledge. studied the benefits of repetition, illustrated this
with his “forgetting curve” – demonstrating how
3 Much has been written about GPT-3, one of the knowledge escapes over time if not consciously
world’s most advanced artificial intelligence systems. remembered – and “spaced learning”, repetition
It can do things that would have been considered over regular intervals. His work has influenced how
science fiction just a few years ago, such as we learn for more than a century. It’s the difference
generate realistic-sounding articles, or translate between becoming an expert and merely passing
between languages it has never seen before. It does a test. Does a student deserve an “A” grade if the
so by learning from a vast amount of text, and then algorithm does the legwork? He or she becomes
making predictions based on that data. no more aware of the subject than I was of my
direction home.
4 (It also wrote that last paragraph, using just the
prompt “much has been written about GPT-3”. I’d 9 Besides, experts in the capabilities of today’s AI warn
like to think I would never stoop to using that writing against it in a blunter sense. Nathan Baschez, creator
cliché, “like science fiction”.) of Lex. Page, a word processing system that can be
used to summon GPT-3 to bulk out your sentences,
5 This kind of AI-generated text is creating waves told me it should be used with great caution in “high
in academia. It’s an inflection point from which we stakes” environments like journalism or academia.
should be careful in how we proceed. A recent Vice
article detailed how a community of students was 10 “GPT-3 can just make up facts that aren’t true and
using GPT-3 (and other similar AI text programs) to say other things that are nonsense,” he said. But it’ll
do the grunt work in writing essays, filling in context only get better. It’s always learning. Are we?
and saving time. Because the AI-generated text was
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“unique”, it allowed students to evade anti-plagiarism

detection software. “I just use AI to handle the
things I don’t want to do or find meaningless,” said
one student.

Dave Lee, 22 November, 2022.

© The Financial Times.
All rights reserved.
Articles republished from the Financial Times.
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 BUSINESS NEWS LESSONS

4 Understanding the article

a. Choose the best way to complete each sentence according to the article. Underline the
information that you used to support your answer in the text.

1. Deprived of his GPS, the author …

a. realised he had never had to learn his way home.

b. decided to take a shortcut home.

2. Efficient technology …

a. can help us learn more easily.

b. can prevent us from learning.

3. The paragraph about GPT-3 was written …

a. after doing a lot of research online.

b. by artificial intelligence.

4. Students are cheating …

a. themselves by using AI to write their papers.

b. and committing plagiarism with AI.

5. In order to remember something, we need to …

a. be prepared to forget it.

b. repeat it many times.

6. The Forgetting Curve is about forgetting things that …

a. are not remembered and repeated at regular intervals.

b. we have not mastered yet because we don’t have time.

7. GPT-3 needs to be used with caution because …

a. you can unknowingly commit plagiarism.

b. not everything it says is true.
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 BUSINESS NEWS LESSONS

5 Business language

a. Find expressions in the text using the definitions below. The paragraph number has
been given.

1. depend on (two words, subtitle)

2. behave in the same bad way that someone else is behaving or do something bad in order to get
what you want (two words, paragraph 4)

3. cause problems, usually by making suggestions or criticisms

(two words, paragraph 5)

4. used for saying that repeating an activity or doing it regularly makes you very good at it
(three words, paragraph 7)

5. do the tiring or boring work that you have to do as part of a job, for example collecting information
from different places or (four words,
paragraph 5; three words, paragraph 8)

b. Discuss the questions.

1. Do you think we lean too heavily on technology?

2. Who has been creating waves in the tech or business world recently?

3. Do you believe “practice makes perfect” is true? What is an example that shows this expression?

4. Are there people in your team or company that do the legwork without receiving credit
or recognition?

5. Have you ever stooped to doing something you later regretted?

6 Discussion questions

a. Discuss these questions.

1. Do you think we ‘outsource our thinking’ to technology too much?

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2. Should AI be off limits when it comes to studies and work? Who should set these limits?

3. How can we encourage younger people to become better at learning and wean themselves
off technology?

4. After reading about how we learn, do you think tedious repetition is the correct way to teach?

5. Do you agree with the author that leaning too heavily on technology is making people stupid?
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 BUSINESS NEWS LESSONS

7 Wider business theme – AI and job automation

a. Look at the table below and answer the questions.

SHARE OF TASKS THAT ARE SUSCEPTIBLE TO AUTOMATION

Production
High (70% – 100%) Food service
Transportation
Administrative
Maintenance
Construction
Agriculture
Medium (30% – 70%) Personal care
Protective
Health support
Sales
Facilities care
Health practitioners
Legal
Computer
Science
Management
Low (0% – 30%)
Education
Social service
Engineering
Arts / Entertainment
Business

(According to REPORT Automation and Artificial Intelligence: How machines are affecting people and places by Mark Muro,
Robert Maxim, and Jacob Whiton, 24 January, 2019)

1. Does any of the information in the table surprise you? Why?

2. How is your sector ranked? Why do you think it is (not) susceptible to automation?

3. Which areas or tasks in your future job do you expect to be automated?

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4. How can you prepare for such a future? What new skills might the workforce / your sector need
to develop in order not to be made redundant?

5. What new opportunities might automation present in these different sectors?

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b. Prepare a short presentation to convince your local government, industries, or organisations

to invest in training to prepare workers for the future. Address the points below. Do more
research to provide more evidence and support for your ideas.

• Explain how your job will be affected by automation.

• Explain what new skills people in your field will need to learn and how they can be developed.

• Describe new opportunities for individuals and organisations that should be embraced.

Possible useful language:

• According to the report, it is likely that … jobs will be automated.

• Since tasks such as … can easily be executed by robots/computers/algorithms, …

• The workforce for tasks like … will always be humans given the fact that …

• It is important to develop training programmes for workers in the … sector to …

• If we …, we can ensure a bright future for all.

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