AI and the Future of Education

SUPRIYANTO

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The challenge of artificial intelligence (AI) technology to the world of education began to be felt very massively when generative AI became available to the public.

Educators are struggling with how to evaluate student assignments when they can easily answer questions or compose essays with the help of generative AI such as ChatGPT and Google Bard.

In addition, the importance of the presence of teachers/professors in the classroom has begun to be questioned considering that students/schoolers can now ask anything to generative AI machines. In fact, there is already an idea emerging to replace the presence of teachers in the classroom with robots equipped with AI systems (Bushweller, 2020).

The size of the AI technology market in the education sector is also increasingly growing, from 363.7 million US dollars in 2020 to 556.9 million US dollars in 2021 (Grand View Research). There was a significant increase in 2022, reaching 2.5 billion US dollars. The size of the AI market is predicted to continue to increase and is estimated to reach 88.2 billion US dollars in 2032 (Allied Market Research).

Also read: AI Surprises Educate a New Generation

The biggest market for AI applications in the education sector is learning platforms and virtual facilitators, followed by intelligent tutoring systems. Both are in direct contact with the crucial role that teachers/lecturers have played. Intelligent tutor systems, for example, actually do what teachers/lecturers generally do: provide instructions and feedback for students.

Seeing these developments, we need to rethink the future of education in the AI ​​era. Where will this education be directed?

Reorientation of education

Several AI applications in the education sector, such as virtual facilitators and smart tutoring systems, rely heavily on generative AI systems and, more specifically, natural language processing. This system is indeed a type of AI designed with the Turing test approach (Russell & Norvig, 2022: 19).

The intelligent category of the system is based on its non-differentiability from human behavior. When a system can behave in a way that cannot be distinguished from that of humans, it means that it is an intelligent system.

The sophistication of AI systems can provide several benefits for educators themselves. Complaints about excessive administrative burdens have often been raised. With the presence of AI technology, the administrative burden of educators should be reduced, even eliminated entirely by fully transferring it to the machines.

Reports and planning of learning activities, for example, can be transferred to AI technology systems. Lecturers do not have to be required to create guidelines for lecturer’s workloads (BKD) and lecturer's performance sheets (LKD) every semester. Everything is automatically recorded in the system. Thus, they can focus on self-development and continuous updating of teaching materials.

Aside from its positive impacts, AI technology presents several challenges for the world of education. The massive nature of generative AI makes educators confused about how to evaluate students' work. They will find it difficult to distinguish whether it is the work of a human or a machine. Therefore, there is a need for educational reorientation in this era of AI.

According to Priten Shah (2023: 32), modern and future education should not be designed to create "generators", but to produce "evaluators". Generators have the skill to create something, which can now be replaced by AI technology to some extent. Evaluators have the skill to assess something accurately.

To have this skill, you need a number of other skills, such as critical and analytical thinking skills.

The education of the future, with the help of AI, must be returned to its original purpose: to educate humans to become humans, not to train humans to become workers.

Thus, the orientation of future education should no longer be to give birth to a generation that can make things, but rather a generation that can evaluate things correctly. Technical skills should no longer be the main orientation of education. Future education, with the help of AI, must return to its original purpose: educating humans to be humans, not training humans to be workers.

Philosophical skills

Evaluators always think within a normative framework: what is good/bad or what should/shouldn't exist. In many public conversations, normative thinking has a pejorative meaning. It is often understood as a way of thinking that is merely based on clear norms.

If the accepted norm says that A is bad, someone who thinks normatively will say that A is bad. It is as if there is no thinking activity at all in normative thinking.

However, it is not the shallow way of thinking that is meant by normative thinking of an evaluator. What is good/bad is not always clear on its own or explicitly stated in norms. Therefore, determining whether something is good or bad is never easy. There are many things that need to be considered.

In addition, the value of good/bad is not an all-or-nothing binary category, which assumes that if something is good then it is absolutely good and if something is bad then it is absolutely bad. Good/bad grades are gradual. There is a good-bad spectrum and, therefore, there is a borderline case between good and bad.

Therefore, normative thinking is actually never easy unless it assumes that good/bad is an all-or-nothing binary category. However, such assumptions will actually distance us from reality. What we encounter in the reality of life is not always something that is absolutely good or absolutely bad.

Therefore, to become an evaluator, special skills are required, including philosophical skills. This includes cognitive and emotional skills, ranging from critical thinking, analytical, creative, and imaginative abilities, to the ability to be sensitive and empathetic towards others.

Also read: Higher Education is Encouraged to Adopt and Integrate Artificial Intelligence

With this package of philosophical skills, future humans can navigate their lives amidst AI-powered machines. They will not be enslaved by machines. Therefore, the future of education actually depends on philosophy. If education is to remain a relevant and valuable social process, it must be directed towards the goal of educating humans who have evaluative intelligence, an intelligence that is useful for living alongside non-human intelligent entities.

Siti Murtiningsih,Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy, Gadjah Mada University