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Humans need to excel at things AI can’t do – and that means more creativity and critical thinking and less memorisation
Fri 14 Jul 2023 03.00 EDT
Education and the Impact of AI
Education strikes at the heart of what makes us human. It drives the intellectual capacity and prosperity of nations. It has developed the minds that took us to the moon and eradicated previously incurable diseases. And the special status of education is why generative AI tools such as ChatGPT are likely to profoundly disrupt this sector. This isn’t a reflection of their intelligence, but of our failure to build education systems that nurture and value our unique human intelligence.
The Limitations of AI
We are being duped into believing these AI tools are far more intelligent than they really are. A tool like ChatGPT has no understanding or knowledge. It merely collates bits of words together based on statistical probabilities to produce useful texts. It is an incredibly helpful assistant. But it is not knowledgeable or wise. It has no concept of how any of the words it produces relate to the real world. The fact that it can pass so many forms of assessment merely reflects that those assessments were not designed to test knowledge and understanding but rather to test whether people had collected and memorized information.
The Potential of AI in Education
AI could be a force for tremendous good within education. It could release teachers from administrative tasks, giving them more opportunities to spend time with students. However, we are woefully equipped to benefit from the AI that is flooding the market. It does not have to be like this. There is still time to prepare, but we must act quickly and wisely.
Current Applications of AI in Education
AI has been used in education for more than a decade. AI-powered systems, such as Carnegie Learning or Aleks, can analyze student responses to questions and adapt learning materials to meet their individual needs. AI tools such as TeachFX and Edthena can also enhance teacher training and support. To reap the benefits of these technologies, we must design effective ways to roll out AI across the education system and regulate this properly.
Rethinking Education for the Age of AI
Staying ahead of AI will mean radically rethinking what education is for and what success means. Human intelligence is far more impressive than any AI system we see today. We possess a rich and diverse intelligence, much of which is unrecognized by our current education system.
Revamping the Curriculum
We are capable of sophisticated, high-level thinking, yet the school curriculum, particularly in England, takes a rigid approach to learning, prioritizing the memorizing of facts rather than creative thinking. Students are rewarded for rote learning rather than critical thought. Our education system should recognize the unique aspects of human intelligence. At school, this would mean a focus on teaching high-level thinking capabilities and designing a system to supercharge our intelligence. Rather than teaching students only how to collate and memorize information, we should prize their ability to interpret facts and weigh up the evidence to make an original argument.
Embracing AI while Protecting Human Intellect
Failure to change isn’t an option. Now these technologies are here, we need humans to excel at what AI cannot do, so any workplace automation complements and enriches our lives and our intelligence. This should be an amazing opportunity to use AI to become much smarter, but we must ensure that AI serves us, not the other way round. This will mean confronting the profit-driven imperatives of big tech companies and the illusionist tricks played by Silicon Valley. It will also mean carefully considering what types of tasks we’re willing to offload to AI. Some aspects of our intellectual activity may be dispensable, but many are not. While Silicon Valley conjures up its next magic trick, we must prepare ourselves to protect what we hold dear – for ourselves and for future generations.
