#TwoBits: To AI or not to AI is no longer the question

When you mix with teachers, you realise how little you actually know.

We were having a discussion around the dinner table the other day about the phenomenon of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how it is affecting the world, mostly our children and grandchildren. We are retired folk, you understand, so we’re not exactly up to speed on its everyday effect in the workplace.

Some were lamenting that AI could write students’ essays for them and the teacher would most likely be none the wiser. What is the world coming to and all that! But is it a problem? Most definitely so, some said – especially if a computer can enable a lazy student to pass an exam. Would you like to be treated by a doctor who got their medical degree off their Apple Watch?

Well, not so fast.

The teacher at the table wisely pointed out, as teachers tend to do, that we all disliked the rote learning we endured at school, memorising a string of facts, few of which we can remember today. (The last time I used algebra was NEVER – though I’m a scribbler, not an engineer.)

She reminded us that education had evolved in the half-century since we last sat behind a school desk and that there are more effective ways to impart knowledge than parrot fashion.

AI is here to stay, that’s a fact. So educators must address it. What better way than to bring it into the classroom and teach students how to use it? After all, it’s a tool, not a new form of intelligent life. It’s not Deus ex machina (God in the machine).

The new approach to teaching, she said, is for students to learn how to think critically, develop moral values and learn how to contribute meaningfully to society. The old days were about IQ. Today, it’s about EQ – emotional intelligence.

A university academic friend I later phoned took the discussion to another level. AI will have a profound effect on universities, she said. Never mind worrying about students using AI to write their essays, lecturers are using AI themselves to mark those essays.

AI is improving daily; yesterday’s mistakes are being corrected at warp speed. Within 15 years, universities may be unrecognisable. It’s entirely possible that written exams will be scrapped, and students will be assessed on oral presentations. “Tell us what you know – no AI.”

And as for the doctor using AI? So what! Today they consult a medical textbook; tomorrow an AI medical programme could explain in seconds how to perform a heart transplant.

So, what subjects do students still need to learn by heart? My teacher friends are adamant that knowing your times tables, for example, is essential for mental arithmetic, as is the alphabet. How else can you calculate prices in a supermarket or find your way around a filing system?

And to truly make strides in learning, you need to know how to use language and how to read. Having a good command of the written and spoken word is your passport to a greater understanding of the world.

Read, read, read!

After all, you can’t ask Grok everything.

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