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The only way in which we can influence the future of AI is through education. AI is much more than a tool, it is a paradigm shift. It has the potential to impact many areas, but especially, it will have a great influence on education. Until a few years ago, education was based on memorizing the information we found in books. Internet already changed the rules of the game, placing all kinds of information within everyone’s reach. AI is revolutionizing the way we learn again, for instance, connecting all this information and processing it to create new content. A student can ask Chat GPT to write an essay on a specific topic, and it will do so. Or, if I asked Chat GPT to develop an article to upload into PulseZ (don’t worry, that was not the case!), I would have it in a matter of seconds. 

 

According to a Norwegian scientific journal, each generation loses 7 points of Intelligence Quotient compared to the previous generation. Does this mean that machines are becoming more intelligent, while humans are becoming less so? This is concerning. AI is here to stay, and we need to anticipate and remain on top of it in order to move forward and not let it slow us down. The students who are currently being educated in schools will work in jobs that do not even exist yet. How can we prepare for a future that we don’t even know what it will be like? We need an education that fosters everything in which machines cannot surpass us. We need to work on critical thinking, empathy, creativity, artistic sensitivity, and listening skills. More than ever, we need to educate in values, develop skills such as initiative, leadership, entrepreneurship, commitment, and social activism.

 

And none of these things will ever be taught by machines; it will be educators, schools, and other entities that play a key role in this new “smart” future. It has been proven that human contact is essential when it comes to learning. Sala Martí’s book mentions a study that shows that children who learned with a teacher performed better than those who did not have that human contact. A teacher knows their students, their personalities, their strengths, their difficulties, their personal situations. A teacher also knows what to say to each student at each moment to get the best out of them… and that is something that artificial intelligence is unable to do with such closeness. A teacher can set an example and become a role model for their students. A machine cannot. 

 

However, AI can also become the perfect ally for both teachers and students. Machines are able to correct the work and even give us feedback, giving teachers have more time to improve the quality of their classes. We, students, can also to learn faster; AI will make us more productive and give us more time to focus on the more human and personal aspects. 

 

Education will not disappear with AI; on the contrary, it will be more important than ever. But we need to be prepared. We need to know how to anticipate and act quickly before artificial intelligence does.

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