Since our firm launched the first autonomous AI program in education, educators have asked me for ideas on how they can manage this new wave of change. What AI tools and programs should they use in the classroom? What can they allow in assessments?
I tell them to take a step back and look at the larger, historical context. AI is but the latest technology in a long history of innovations. By definition, technology is an invention that expands human capability. Writing too was a new technology at one time. Even Plato felt conflicted about writing. He feared that people would lose the ability to retain and recite oral memory. They did—because writing rendered recitation unnecessary. Memory became externalized, and it expanded into vast storehouses of information in the form of libraries.
More recently, schools wrangled over the use of calculators. With this technology, students
are now required to show more advanced math skills. Now that AI can compose well-written texts, teachers must again demand more. Perhaps demand that students demonstrate more reflection, by showing the process to insight. Or ask students to discuss the absence of something instead, for example why symbolism was missing in a particular poem or a certain strategy was not considered by a leader. Or show wisdom—lessons learned from lived experience, which computers do not have.
The lesson from history is not to fight the new technology or try to suppress it. It is a losing battle. If the young generation wants it, it will prevail, as they will outlive traditionalists. But that does not mean that we cannot shape their future as responsible, wiser stewards of that future.
A Council on AI in Education is sorely needed, which is why I’m founding one to bring educators and AI developers together. This group has an important role to play in learning from one another’s firsthand experiences and sharing this new knowledge with the industry and the public.
