The average reading and math scores of American high school seniors fell to their lowest levels in two decades in 2024, according to new national data released last week.
The results, from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), found that, on average, reading scores for 12th graders were 10 points lower in 2024 than they were in 1992, when the test was first administered, and that math scores fell to their lowest levels since 2005, when the math assessment began.
The test, administered by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), which is part of the US Department of Education, assessed roughly 19,300 12th-graders in math, 24,300 in reading and 23,000 eighth-graders in science between January and March of last year.
I have been using, exploring, and researching generative AI and big data / machine learning for like 6 or 7 years now, and all I can say is that generative AI is not at all ready to take most jobs, mostly because the error rates are extremely high for businesses that really can’t tolerate even one mistake, like fast food ordering systems. The liability is going to be insane once a chat bot recommends that someone at the drive-thru order a bleach and mcflurry special, and the high-as-balls teenager working the machine just does what the computer tells them to do.
The issue at hand imo is that C-suites and VPs and shareholders have all been marketed to — it’s obvious to anyone who has worked with it in any real amounts of time that this shit ain’t ready, but, the brass all sure believe that it’s ready, and they’re gonna try. Once the funding floor falls out (in, say, an inevitable recession that comes once foreign countries’ central banks pull their investments in US savings bonds) and these mega model companies start charging what their tech actually costs, people are gonna be the cheaper option real fast.
Personally, I think that any established professional will be fine. If you are already good at programming, you will probably keep doing programming from here. If you’re good at art or design and have work from the past 10 years, you will probably be fine.
Who I mourn for are the kids who are just now coming up. There will be absolutely no cheap opportunities for young and hungry but inexperienced young adults — that space of ‘good enough’ can and will be filled with generative AI. :/ I have no idea what the solution there is besides a campaign towards mentoring youths and giving them opportunities explicitly.
I’m seeing AI being tried to be used for coding industrial systems. Think like molten lava pouring steel in a mill or foundry setting, incredibly dangerous machinery that can kill you in an instant.
I guess it all gets reviewed and refined and tested before shipping the system but what do I know, I’m just a technician.
I’m still just like… Why