Patrick Lin

Why We’re Not Using AI in This Course, Despite Its Obvious Benefits A reading for your students

For teachers who want a convo-starter or to explain why students shouldn't use AI, here's my big article again for the 2026 academic term.

It's basically a letter to persuade my students to give their education an honest shot with their own brain. 🧠

(Lots of new stuff in here, as a living doc.)

Why We’re Not Using AI in This Course, Despite Its Obvious Benefits A reading for your students

TEACHERS: If you're looking for a reading to assign, to help explain why you're banning AI from your classroom, here ya go.

There didn't seem to be one article that rounds up all the major issues. I tried to do that here, so it's a long read. Feel free to use/share as you like.

Holy schnikes! I hope you recover quickly, Shannon, and that this never, ever happens again.

And this reminds me to take better care of myself...I suppose we all could do that, esp. in these deeply troubled times, ongoing pandemic, and work demands. Time to go for a walk...

"The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters." — Antonio Gramsci

"In the end, the whole of life becomes an act of letting go, but what always hurts the most is not taking a moment to say goodbye." — Yann Martel

"We do not have to invade the United States, we will destroy you from within." ~ Nikita Khrushchev

This is what's happening right now:

"To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears. To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool. To be led by a thief is to offer up your most precious treasures to be stolen. To be led by a liar is to ask to be lied to. To be led by a tyrant is to sell yourself and those you love into slavery." - Octavia Butler, Parable of the Talents, 1998

A meditation for the New Year:

If you torture chatbots long enough, it will confess to anything.

A reminder that AI/LLMs have no intrinsic connection to the truth, only statistical predictions of what the next words should be, which depend on its training data.

"You meet saints everywhere. They can be anywhere. They are people behaving decently in an indecent society." — Kurt Vonnegut

"You meet saints everywhere. They can be anywhere. They are people behaving decently in an indecent society." — Kurt Vonnegut

"Competition is the law of the jungle, but cooperation is the law of civilization.” — Pyotr Kropotkin

"Competition is the law of the jungle, but cooperation is the law of civilization.” — Pyotr Kropotkin

"The Center for the Study of Space Crime, Piracy, and Governance Forms Advisory Board"

Another one of my projects. We may be too early in thinking about this, but it's much better than being too late. (And the odds of being right on time are slim to none.)

cscpg.org/news/the-cen...

Outer Space Cyberattacks: Generating Novel Scenarios to Avoid Surprise The Ethics + Emerging Sciences Group is a non-partisan organization focused on the risk, ethical, and social impact of emerging technologies.

And here's our report from this past summer on how to imagine novel scenarios for space cyberattacks:
spacecybersecurity.org

A Frightening Future: Experts Outline the Growing Threat of Cyber Attacks Against Space Systems Ransomware in space and the possibility of satellite kidnapping were just two of the scary future threats against space systems discussed at the CyberSat conference.

Glad to see more imaginative scenarios in conversations about space security now. They help to bring hidden threats to life and underscore the urgency to be prepared. Abstract scenarios (e.g., "someone hacked our satellite") can't really do that work.

Setting expectations with my first post here: