Artificial intelligence for education (summary)
The disruptive power of artificial intelligence (AI) is radically changing the education sector. A large number of exciting AI applications can be used today or in the near future.
These include:
1. the creation and processing of texts
2.-4. Conversion to other media formats such as images, audio or video.
5. predictive analytics: better and actionable data analysis.
6. personal learning coaches
In addition, artificial intelligence sets completely new standards and demands on us humans in terms of our understanding, our critical faculties and our ethical principles. (7.)
Introduction
Artificial intelligence has been the talk of the town since the release of impressive applications such as ChatGPT and Midjourney.
According to a report by Reuters, ChatGPT has managed to gain over 100 million users within just 2 months of its launch.
ChatGPT is the fastest growing consumer product in the history of mankind.
In Silicon Valley, the release of these new AI tools is being celebrated as an "iPhone moment", the beginning of a new era. Artificial intelligence (AI) is set to give a new boost to the tech industry in 2022, which has been hit by mass redundancies, share price losses and an underlying feeling of saturation. - The Bay Area is once again in a gold-rush mood.
The disruptive power of artificial intelligence has been unleashed in almost all areas of industry since the beginning of 2023. Above all in education.
More and more people are using ChatGPT to learn new things.
Thousands of videos on YouTube already explain how to use this new technology to learn languages, programming, history, general life issues and much more. Just 12 months ago, this was not an issue at all.
In this article, we would like to look specifically at the AI applications that we at MaxBrain, as "learning experts", expect to be of the greatest benefit to the education sector.
We use some of these applications in everyday life, offer them as part of our learning content services or are on the roadmap for the further development of the MaxBrain platform.
However, the topic of artificial intelligence for education is very extensive:
You could write a book from almost every one of the following sections. Moreover, many of our forecasts will most likely turn out to be wrong, one-sided or short-sighted.
Nevertheless, it is worth taking a look at these fascinating future prospects. We look forward to hearing what you think of this article.
Overview: Applications of artificial intelligence in education
The following graphic illustrates the most important applications that artificial intelligence offers for education and training, teachers and learning platforms:
In the following, we will look at some of the most exciting parts of this overview:
1. create texts faster thanks to artificial intelligence
One obvious application of artificial intelligence is the faster, better or automated creation of texts.
Anyone who queries ChatGPT for known topics will immediately receive an answer that is in the top 10% of possible answers in terms of quality.
Supporting teachers in writing texts with artificial intelligence is multifaceted. And the development of large language models (LLMs) promises groundbreaking, as yet unforeseeable innovations in the coming years.
Today, in the first half of 2023, the following applications will be available in impressive quality:
1.1 Writing texts on "evergreen learning content"
Current AI tools are still largely dependent on data sources from the internet or learning processes in interaction with people or internal data.
If nothing or too little is available on the Internet on a specific topic and the human trainers of the AI tools do not know about it, AI - as things stand today - can still contribute little of high quality in the creation of learning content.
Provided creativity consists of recombining existing information - and it usually does - artificial intelligence can be breathtakingly creative.
The current state of AI development is not yet far enough for completely new ideas and inventions.
Some experts already expect artificial intelligence to be able to carry out research and development independently in the medium term - with radical consequences for humanity as a whole, as James Barret, the author of "Our Final Invention", predicted a few years ago.
Today, there is also a risk that incorrect information on the internet could lead to incorrect content being created by AI tools:
The problem of distinguishing between facts, fake news and the even more dangerous, mutilated half-truths - too new German: bullshit - still exists, but is increasingly being combated by the major platforms with artificial intelligence and veritable legions of human checkers.
Put positively:
The more a topic is part of verified or culturally accepted general knowledge, the easier and safer it is for today's artificial intelligence to create high-quality learning content.
At MaxBrain, we call such topics that are part of general knowledge "evergreen topics".
Our current assessment of the individual educational levels is as follows:
- In the education system for children and young people, the so-called "K12 education", practically the entire written part of the curriculum is likely to be classified as "evergreen learning content".
- Large parts of the academic, university curriculum, especially for the first 1-2 years of introductory studies, which often deal with general basics, are also likely to be subsumed under "evergreen topics".
- In adult education and training, for example, general learning content on topics such as data protection, occupational safety, occupational health, cyber security (for non-experts), tutorials on frequently used technologies, general guides on resilience, time management and the like belong to the "evergreen topics" category.
Today, texts on evergreen topics can be created extremely quickly with artificial intelligence at a top 10% level or better .
In contrast, artificial intelligence can now be used to specific topicswhich only concern one company, unpublished research results or a small group of people in general and on which little or nothing is available on the internet, can hardly generate valuable content without additional "training".
In a business context, specific internal expertise, values or further training on special internal processes are usually among the topics that an AI tool can only master with training by people or internal data.
Excursus: The ChatGPT prompts
All the comments so far only concern the question of how artificial intelligence generates entire texts without any prior basis.
But ChatGPT can do much more: the AI tool can correct, translate, adapt existing texts and much more!
This is done via the so-called "prompts".
A prompt is a request to the AI tool to execute certain commands.
Over the next few years, one of the things we humans will have to learn is how to write good, meaningful, targeted prompts.
The better the prompt, the more effective and productive our use of the new artificial intelligence. You can see the first tips in the following video:
Worth mentioning:
There are already over 6 million search results on Google for the search query "The best prompts for ChatGPT".
There are already websites that list prompts for ChatGPT for every business area, e.g. Learnprompt.org. - Prompts specifically for teachers are offered free of charge.
We would like to briefly outline some of these very useful prompts for teachers, coaches and content producers here:
1.2 Orthography: Rapid corrections
Proofreading texts can be time-consuming.
Quality-conscious people write texts, e-mails or even learning content and then - often unnoticed - spend most of their time correcting their texts.
AI tools can speed up this process a hundredfold: instead of taking 30 minutes to correct three A4 pages, ChatGPT can do it in 15 seconds or less.
The perfection of artificial intelligence also promises fewer errors than the usually less precise human eye.
A very simple prompt for this useful function is:
Please correct the text: [...]
A small example:
1.3 Translations of learning content via A.I.
Translations of learning content are also becoming easier and easier and are usually possible very quickly and in impressive quality with artificial intelligence. For teachers, the translations of AI tools offer at least a very good starting point, which saves an enormous amount of time.
Today's industry leader ChatGPT masters translations in over 50 languages. - Older, still leading AI services such as Deepl.com do the same.
There are also plugins for certain software providers that automatically translate components.
One example would be the WordPress plugin Weglot, which allows administrators of a WordPress website to activate a language on the entire website within seconds.
The MaxBrain website is a good example of this: simply change the language at the bottom of the footer of this website and the Weglot plugin will translate this article for you in just a few seconds.
One formulation for a translation prompt could be:
Translate the following sentence to [language]: [...]
A concrete example:
1.4 Summaries made quickly
As mentioned in our article "Creating the best learning content for your LMS [Checklist 2023]", summaries are one of the most important elements of a successful learning program.
Summaries can also be used later in other formats, for example as short audio units or videos.
With ChatGPT or Google Bard, you can request a summary including the exact number of lines or words.
The idea of summarizing content from a website is also exciting.
Prompts for summaries could be as follows:
Summarize the following text to [number of lines]: [...]
Summarize the following article on the website to a maximum of [number of lines]: [link]
Example from ChatGPT:
1.5 Simplify language or change the tone using artificial intelligence
Sometimes it is worth simplifying language or adapting the tone to the target group you want to reach with a learning content. I speak from experience: I regularly write something that is too laborious, difficult to understand or too pointed for others.
In the case of learning content, it can be fatal not to take the target group into account:
Learning units that are too banal or too difficult are guaranteed to defeat their purpose.
Prompts to change the tonality are also impressive and funny. For example, they read as follows:
Write the following text for [description target group]: [...]
Examples from ChatGPT:
Our project manager Ziad Fathallah had the following suggestion to show how multifaceted ChatGPT can imitate the tonality of well-known and even virtual personalities:
In our fun MaxBrain office, of course, this exercise immediately led to dozens of other tests and ideas.
Our sales manager Dominique Chappuis ("Domi") used the tone of John Rambo to ensure that the MaxBrain team finally understood what they were actually working on.
Rambo gets straight to the point:
Excursus: Integration of K.I. text tools in editors and learning platforms
Some editors on the market already offer ready integration with ChatGPT.
An example that I use on this website: The Elementor Editor for WordPress. This is what an automatic translation into English looks like:
The authoring tools used by MaxBrain, above all Articulate Rise, are also in the process of integrating the practical AI tools for text creation, as mentioned a few months ago in the blog article ChatGPT AI - A new starting point for content creation?
At MaxBrain, we are working in many other areas to integrate artificial intelligence in order to create learning content faster, easier and better.
2. converting text into images using AI
Texts are of course just one of many formats that learning platforms can use.
Artificial intelligence can convert texts into a variety of other media formats, such as:
- Pictures
- Audio formats
- Video
- Music
- Software code
- Data charts and data visualization
- Presentations
The possibilities are constantly being expanded.
In this article, we will only discuss the three most relevant formats for education: Images, audio and video.
2.1 Create new images with Midjourney & Co.
Anyone who creates content knows the problem of finding suitable images or creating them themselves: It can be time-consuming to find an image that fits a specific topic.
Pictures without reference to the learning content are usually rather confusing.
Today, there are more and more providers of artificial intelligence to generate images from text. The following AI tools are currently receiving the most media attention:
By far the most advanced of these AI tools today (update: March 2024) is certainly Midjourney.
It requires some training and, unlike ChatGPT, no longer offers a free version.
According to my tests so far, Midjourney is superior to the others in creating photorealistic images of people. All the others struggle with this and regularly produce monster versions of faces.
Do you recognize the following pictures from the homepage of the MaxBrain website?
These two photos are not photos of real people or stock photos bought online, but unique portraits of people generated by Midjourney!
The quality is impressive: hardly anyone who visits the MaxBrain website would think that these people do not even exist, but are the creation of an artificial intelligence.
You guessed it: the cover image of this blog article was also generated by Midjourney:
The problem:
In contrast to ChatGPT, Midjourney requires some training.
For example, the prompts for the two images on the MaxBrain start page look like this:
/imagine prompt(Young Woman, standing, holding a tablet, smiling, happy, Canon 5D Mark IV, 80mm lens, f/2.8, shallow depth of field)
/imagine prompt(Business Man, standing, holding a tablet, smiling, happy, Canon 5D Mark IV, 80mm lens, f/2.8, shallow depth of field)
As you can see from the two prompts, you either need some knowledge about photography to create such photos or you need to acquire knowledge about midjourney prompts.
Of course, there are already countless videos on YouTube.
An explanatory video about Midjourney, which I used to learn it after months of trial and error:
I now (2024) generate almost every marketing image with Midjourney.
If minor adjustments are required, classic Adobe programs such as Photoshop or Illustrator also offer very good options via artificial intelligence or generative fill.
Removing backgrounds, creating suitable backgrounds, landscapes etc. are already very impressive using the Adobe programs.
2.2 Image processing with artificial intelligence
Creating images from scratch without any specifications is one thing.
The other:
AI tools save an enormous amount of time when it comes to optimizing existing images.
Examples that I have been using frequently for some time now:
- Remove backgrounds with Clipping Magic to remove hair from a photo in 10 seconds instead of 30 minutes.
- Enhance photos of faces faster with VanceAI
- Various other image edits, also with VanceAI
- Generative fill with Photoshop
It will be interesting to see what will soon be possible in terms of image processing.
In any case, the education industry can look forward to more efficient and perhaps even more creative images for its learning content.
3. converting text to audio formats
Audio formats - especially podcasts and audio books - are becoming increasingly popular.
Once you discover the possibility of using podcasts to turn the boring time spent stuck in a traffic jam on the way to work into valuable learning time, or listening to exciting audio books while going for a walk, you will appreciate the audio format in the long term and enjoy getting used to it.
In some cases - for example in professions that require a lot of travel time - audio formats are often the only way to consume learning content at all while working.
Audio formats can also play an important role in the internalization of learning units; apart from the fact that many people clearly prefer to have a text read aloud rather than having to read it themselves.
Exciting for teachers, coaches and learning platforms:
In recent years, artificial intelligence has developed impressively in terms of its ability to convert texts into pleasant listening experiences.
The biggest challenge that complex algorithms and learning processes demand of AI tools is intonation.
The intonation and pauses between words determine whether a spoken text comes across as monotonous or exciting. Especially with longer texts or emotionally charged stories, very few people can tolerate monotonous speech.
Intonation and pauses are directly linked to the context of the content: You have to understand a text in order to identify the exact words and syllables that need to be emphasized or require a pause in speech.
Sometimes the intonation is conveyed by commas or pauses, which make important differences in content but are not explicitly pronounced:
Provider of artificial intelligence for text-to-speech (TTS)
There are now a whole range of speech-to-text providers that use artificial intelligence and imitation to come very close to the human way of speaking.
The most prominent providers on the market today are:
In our opinion, Murf.ai is the best TTS (text-to-speech) tool on the market today (June 2023), partly because the intonation ("emphasis") of a word and the addition of pauses of different lengths can be corrected retrospectively in the Murf Studio editor:
As you can hear from the following audio file generated via Murf.ai, the collaboration between man and machine is already able to deliver relatively good results:
Another provider that has been well-known on the market for some time is Speechify. For English-language videos, Speechify offers, among other things, voices of well-known personalities with whom you can have your texts recorded. However, in our opinion, the current "standard voices" in German are not pleasant enough.
Another interesting feature is Descript Overdub: this tool allows you to record your own voice. The artificial intelligence learns your pitch, intonation and way of speaking and can thus convert completely new texts into recordings with your own voice. If - unlike me - you like your own voice, this is an exciting option.
4 Converting text to video formats
Video is the most convenient and therefore preferred format for consuming content on the Internet.
For education and learning platforms, this actually means that online content should preferably be offered in video format.
The problem with videos:
For most content creators, creating videos is time-consuming, usually expensive and requires knowledge that you first have to learn.
Artificial intelligence will help: Videos are ultimately nothing more than a combination of content (text), audio and image sequences.
A whole range of providers are therefore already trying their hand at the market, including:
We have tested these AI tools.
Our conclusion:
1. at the present time (March 2024), all text-to-video providers leave a rather experimental, still immature impression.
2. the quality of AI tools and their adaptability to the needs of the education industry are still too limited.
3. professionally produced, "man-made" videos are still dimensions more beautiful, creative, exciting and captivating today.
This conclusion does not surprise us.
Video is the supreme discipline:
To the extent that artificial intelligence understands text, audio, image creation and also image sequencing, it can master the creation of videos.
All these pieces of the puzzle are still in their infancy. Their synthesis into a high-quality video is not yet practical for higher quality requirements.
However, it is to be expected that our rather cautious assessment of text-to-video generators will be much more positive in future.
Will we have to wait a few years before artificial intelligence can be used for video production?
No. I expect that by the end of 2024, video creation will be completely revolutionized compared to today.
It also depends on what we expect from the quality of videos.
For many purposes in the education industry, the AI video tools mentioned above may be sufficient.
There are also other exciting solutions for more efficient video production in the education sector:
The combination of software or platforms for creating presentations with artificial intelligence around audio formats.
For example, the aforementioned provider Murf.ai is in the process of developing a system that combines Google Slides presentations with audio AI to generate videos.
The idea: Create explanatory videos from presentations.
We have tested the Murf add-on for Google Slides.
The result after about 1 hour of work is not perfect. However, the potential of combining Google Slides with an AI voice-over tool cannot be denied:
In this blog article, we now want to continue our overview of the applications of artificial intelligence in education.
5.predictive analytics
5.1 The problem with the data: Insufficient utilization
Predictive analytics involves analyzing data in order to predict and exploit future events or results.
Not a new idea in itself:
Many tech companies and SMEs claim to be "data-driven"; after all, this sells a little more objectivity when it comes to added value, customer needs, trends or optimization potential.
This wishful thinking does not usually correspond to reality:
Most companies do not collect any data at all - and the few that do often do not use data at all or only to a limited extent.
Opinions, "gut feelings" or hierarchies in organizations often account for 95% of all decisions.
The big challenge:
Selecting the right data from large amounts of data and utilizing it effectively is challenging, requires a lot of imagination and often means more work.
Education is no different:
Learning programs are hardly ever offered on a personalized basis.
In elementary school, every child is confronted with exactly the same learning content, some of which dates back to the century before last - the Prussian educational model.
In higher education and continuing education, learners tend to select the subjects and topics that interest them, but they are usually placed in the same learning program in terms of learning content within this selection.
Providers of modern learning platforms, on the other hand, are slowly but surely recognizing the potential of personalized learning experiences.
In our blog article "LMS vs. LXP: A change of perspective in education", we already went into detail about the difference between a learning management system (LMS) focused on the administration of learning programs versus a platform focused on the ideal learning experience (LXP).
5.2 Artificial intelligence: a new hope for predictive analytics
Hope summarized in one sentence:
Artificial intelligence can use new cross-references to quickly, automatically and specifically evaluate data and add value.
Almost seven months after the release of ChatGPT, much is still speculative.
The following use cases are conceivable thanks to "smarter" or even genuine data utilization:
- Intelligent course recommendations: Predictive analytics thanks to artificial intelligence can help learners discover exciting courses according to their interests, learning progress or career goals.
- Adaptation of learning content: An AI can analyze the factors that lead to learning content being selected, consumed and leading to successful learning outcomes. With this data, the AI can automatically optimize learning content, for example in terms of length, tone, structure, format, level of difficulty, etc.
- Adaptive learning platforms: AI-powered adaptive learning platforms can use predictive analytics to continuously monitor student progress and adjust content and difficulty levels in real time.
- Increase engagement in learning: AI can analyze various factors that contribute to increased learner engagement, including learning progress, weaknesses and strengths in quizzes, demographics, etc. - With this data, AI can generate special measures - such as notifications, games, dashboards - that motivate learners to learn more often and better.
- Support in administration relating to teaching: Predictive analytics can help education centers to predict administrative issues. By analysing historical and current data, AI algorithms can optimize administrative framework conditions such as room reservations, course times, teachers and teaching materials.
- Support with career planning: AI-driven predictive analytics could analyze future trends on the job market and recommend the best career paths for learners based on their individual skill level and interests.
Providers of modern learning platforms such as MaxBrain are developing more and more features and functions for these purposes through close, practice-oriented cooperation with corporate customers.
We are at the beginning of a development that will fundamentally change the education system.
6 The personal AI coach
Another groundbreaking idea for the education sector is that of AI coaches who provide individual support to learners.
As in other areas - such as medical, psychological or legal care - there is a heated debate among experts today about whether every person should have their own own coach to make learning faster, easier and more targeted.
As with all other topics in this article, we asked ChatGPT.
The answers were particularly interesting at this point:
Question/Prompt:
How can artificial intelligence coach learners?
ChatGPT:
Artificial intelligence (AI) can coach and support learners in various ways. Here are some possibilities:
1. personalized learning content: AI can analyze the learning behavior and needs of learners and provide personalized learning content. Based on individual strengths, weaknesses and interests, AI-driven systems can adapt learning materials and exercises to provide a customized learning experience.
2. feedback and assessment: AI can give learners feedback on their performance and assess their progress. By analyzing answers and solutions, AI can provide detailed and immediate feedback to help learners improve and boost their motivation.
3. learning paths and progress tracking: AI can monitor individual learning progress and suggest appropriate learning paths. Based on a learner's strengths and weaknesses, AI can make recommendations for the order and pace of learning content to ensure an optimal learning curve.
4. language and speech exercises: AI-powered language assistants can help learners improve their language skills. They can simulate conversations, offer corrections and help with pronunciation to develop language comprehension and communication skills.
5. virtual tutors: AI can act as a virtual tutor and provide individual learning support. Learners can ask questions, discuss problems and receive additional explanations without having to rely on the presence of a human tutor.
6. time management and learning planning: AI can help learners organize their time effectively and create learning plans. Based on learning goals and available time frame, AI can set reminders, prioritize tasks and optimize learning schedules to ensure efficient use of available time.
7. emotional support: AI-driven systems can also provide emotional support by giving learners encouraging and motivating messages. By integrating AI into learning environments, learners can feel supported and cared for.
It is important to note that AI should be considered as a complement to human teachers when coaching learners. The combination of AI and human empathy can ensure an optimal learning experience.
Reading ChatGPT's answer sounds like a futuristic utopia:
Something that only a few weirdos in the tech industry would like, and which is still many years away, if at all. No need to worry, dear education system!
This way of thinking is dangerously short-sighted and already ignores successful implementations of this idea of an AI learning coach.
In May 2023, for example, the founder and CEO of the highly successful Khan Academy in the USA, Sal Khan, presented the implementation of an AI coach for basic education at a TED talk:
Given this very specific example of an AI coach, the next obvious question for ChatGPT was:
Question/Prompt:
What can human teachers do better for teaching than artificial intelligence?
ChatGPT:
Human teachers have certain skills and qualities that artificial intelligence (AI) cannot yet fully replicate. Here are some aspects in which human teachers have advantages in the classroom:
1. emotional intelligence and empathy: Human teachers can perceive emotions, respond empathetically and build a supportive relationship with learners. They can recognize individual needs and challenges and respond appropriately. Empathy and interpersonal connections play an important role in the motivation and well-being of learners.
2. adaptability and flexibility: Teachers can adapt quickly to changes or unforeseen situations in the classroom. They can adapt their teaching methods and strategies to meet the individual needs of learners. The ability to respond spontaneously to questions and discussions is also a strength of teachers.
3. social interaction and group work: Teachers encourage social interaction and collaboration between learners. They create a learning environment in which students can communicate with each other, exchange ideas and learn from each other. Promoting teamwork, communication skills and social engagement is an important role of human teachers.
4. teaching values and character development: In addition to teaching pure knowledge, teachers can also teach values and ethical principles. They can discuss moral dilemmas, promote critical thinking and support the development of ethical behavior in learners.
5 Mentoring and individual support: Teachers can take on a mentoring role and offer individual support. They can help learners to define their goals, overcome obstacles and reach their full potential. Personal advice and guidance are important elements of a holistic education.
6. creativity and inspiration: Teachers bring their own creativity and passion to the classroom. They can develop innovative learning methods, activities and materials to stimulate learners' interest and curiosity. Through their own enthusiasm for the subject area, they can encourage students' motivation and engagement.
These human skills complement and enhance the potential of artificial intelligence in the classroom. The combination of human teachers with AI-supported technologies can provide an effective and enriching learning experience.
You may have wondered in the course of this article how much has been written by me, the author Andrea Anderheggen, and how much has been written by ChatGPT.
The somewhat sobering answer is:
ChatGPT has helped me to collect ideas and correct texts, yes!
However, this article took about seven net working days to write; about twenty thousand times longer than the 10 seconds it would have taken me to write an article using only ChatGPT.
Many strands of thought in this article do not correspond to what you will quickly find in a Google search. Because my motto for blog articles is:
"More exciting, more detailed and more practice-oriented than what readers can find on the Internet on the same topic. Or: let it be."
Accordingly, ChatGPT could not write a blog article like this one; at least not without time-consuming training on my part, which would probably have taken longer than 7 working days.
Based on this personal experience, I have the following conclusions as of today (June 2023):
In terms of emotionality and creativity, humans are still far superior to the new artificial intelligence in many respects.
And this also applies to teachers, coaches and mentors, who have a significant influence on the education system and thus on human knowledge.
Nevertheless, artificial intelligence is changing education forever:
On the one hand via the applications already mentioned above.
On the other hand, teachers, coaches and providers of learning platforms now have new, exciting homework to do:
The education industry must learn how to deal with the new possibilities of artificial intelligence - or risk losing relevance.
7 Artificial intelligence is not only changing our everyday lives, but also the demands placed on us humans.
As learners and teachers, we need to understand how to deal with the applications, consequences and potential of the new artificial intelligence.
Artificial intelligence not only changes our learning content and learning processes, but also requires new skills and competencies in dealing with AI.
Artificial intelligence will completely take over many of the existing human skills. Such skills will become obsolete for us.
What this means in concrete terms is largely unclear today (June 2023):
What exactly we need to learn or forget in order to deal with AI is linked to the further development of artificial intelligence applications and tools.
However, some important skills that we need to learn anew or better for the application of AI tools are already foreseeable today.
This includes the following points:
- We have to learn to formulate wishes or - in AI-speak - "prompts" more precisely.
Artificial intelligence is comparable to a genie in a bottleThe more precisely we formulate our wishes, the better the AI tools can help us.
Easier said than done:
We often don't even know what we want because we don't know the basics and consequences of our wishes or haven't thought the problem through enough.
As one software developer recently put it on Twitter:
And that's just the beginning:
- We must learn to critically scrutinize information: to the extent that people are exposed to lies, bullshit or misinformation on the Internet, it is now artificial intelligence whose information comes from the Internet.
The responsibility to scrutinize information, texts, images or videos from an artificial intelligence is followed by another, even more difficult one:
- We need to agree on a universal ethic.
This new requirement is probably the most difficult and at some point possibly the most important of all:
The fact is:
Ethics do not (yet) exist . There is merely a chaotic variety of rules depending on geography, political views, religion, income - coupled with the tendency towards an increasingly unconditional individualism that creates its own rules.
And this becomes an urgent practical problem as soon as we talk about artificial intelligence or, worse still, "superintelligence" is considered:
How are we humans supposed to define uniform ethical guidelines for artificial intelligence if we are not even able to define such guidelines among ourselves?
This global lack of generally accepted ethical principles and the rules derived from them raises many practical questions for the education system:
Segmentation vs. discrimination: How exactly do you ensure that the personalization of learning programs via the data-based segmentation of learners does not lead to individual learners being discriminated against?
Freedom to learn vs. course recommendations: To what extent is there freedom to learn what you want if course recommendations only display the learning content that the algorithm of an AI calculates as particularly suitable for individual learners?
Data protection: How is learner data used and protected in such a way that it does not violate their personal rights?
Creativity: How do you ensure that people remain creative when artificial intelligence provides them with a framework of knowledge and creativity?
We will have to answer these and other difficult questions if we do not want to risk the applications of artificial intelligence degenerating into a mere instrument of power for a few interest groups.
"Knowledge is power," as Francis Bacon clearly stated around 500 years ago.
And learning determines our knowledge.
Once again, I personally see no other option than to simply trust the leading developers of powerful instruments such as artificial intelligence and occasionally steer them in an acceptable direction via boycotts or laws; just as we have already had to do more or less successfully with the inventors of the atomic bomb, genetics, the computer, the internet or the iPhone.
Instead of fighting the unstoppable development of artificial intelligence, it makes much more sense to minimize its risks, understand its potential and use it for the benefit of others.
Questions for you:
What is your opinion?
How exactly will artificial intelligence change the education system?
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