Food for Thought #2 18-19: Part I How should we approach AI

As promised for the next three weeks I will share some thinking about AI and its impact on education and society in general.

We have a great deal to think about regarding AI and not much time to do it in. It is probable that the 4th Industrial Revolution and the incredible advancement of technology and AI has begun and is more developed than we are being told. After all, since Ray Kurzweil's book Singularity pointed towards a future where humans would no longer be the smartest inhabitant of this planet, scientist and engineers have been in engaged in an AI race. Hence, it is no wonder that predictions for years in the future are being accomplished decades quicker than anticipated. This is why there is not much time before AI seriously impacts our students lives. As we know given it generally takes education time to change thus it is good that we have been thinking about this for several years at ISHCMC.

AI will certainly bring both challenges and opportunities for our students. the key is going to be accepting AI, working alongside it, allowing it to complement who we are as human beings and augment our social, emotional and learning skills. Resisting or denying AI's future impact would be foolish and could lead to the type of world depicted in many science fiction movies where humans are fighting machines.

Hence, before sharing some of the thinking about the benefits and threats of AI I thought that I would share this recent TED talk on this topic. The reason I'd like to start with this talk is because it mirrors our thinking on this topic. It stresses the importance of focusing on our number one point of differentiation......a machine can never be a human and share our emotions. It is our social and emotional intelligence that will allow us to stand apart from machines, to create new jobs that focus on human traits that cannot be replicated by machines.

When you watch/ listen to this talk I believe you will see that the direction we have moved in with understanding who we are, our focus on character traits, social and emotional development, well being and mindfulness is fully supported and promoted for others to engage with for their futures. There are several lessons from Kai-Fu Lee's experiences that we can all learn from if we  are open minded. It is such a shame that so often it takes a dramatic shock, usually life threatening, to make us wake up and see what is important in our lives.