Like motor engine cars, electricity, computer, and the internet, Artificial intelligence is about to revolutionise the way we live and interact with each other. This revolution has lately been a cause of anxiety among people in general, who think they may become jobless and redundant because of robotic humanoids. Social scientists also share the AI anxiety that it would threaten human existence.
The impact of AI will indeed be felt in every walk of human life, and it will prove a multidimensional and multi-layered project of human life, which calls for a massive human effort to deal with. But herein, AI anxiety and education would dominate the argument. It’s not wrong to be anxious about the preparedness to face this new technological revolution, but it will not wipe out all the traditional ways of life.
For example, even for 100 years, cars have been unable to remove the use of horses for loading and traveling. Similarly, messaging through email and SMS has not wiped-out letter writing. Books are still in our hands even when we have book readers in our hands. So, it is possible that a more significant part of our world, especially education, may take a new shift, but much of the system will retain itself.
The need of the hour is not just to be anxious. The anxiety must be transferred to finding ways and means to survive the new revolution. In the case of education, the teacher must get trained differently. He must equip himself with the skills to use AI for the benefit of his students and manipulate information sources, and find solutions for complex problems, which, so far, he couldn’t. It is a fact that the ones who would not synchronize with the changing world would be left unneeded. The well-renowned educationists responsible for designing syllabi and teaching methodologies may come forward to initiate new methods of teaching classes in an era of AI technology. They may also revamp the existing syllabi and course contents by analyzing these initially, including much-needed aspects of the disciplines concerned, and removing all that needs no repetition.
If Pakistan needs to stand equal to the developed nations of the world, these initiatives must be taken in time to avoid any rushtoward the new normal, especially when our neighboringcountries are already focusing on making their space among the upcoming world of AI.
It is high time to do so because we are already teaching redundant and obsolete course content which needs to be replaced with doable and workable solutions for the modern world. It should also be stressed that reputed universities must come forward to take the initiative of training and learning courses in this regard, especially focusing on the next 20 years of AI technology because the survival and fitness of Pakistani people depend on it. The government is already taking the initiative in this regard, but that needs to be strictly monitored by responsible and dedicated professionals so that the opportunity hardly found may not be lost.
This new technology is invented by humans just as all other ones have been to support human life. Has not already available technology helped humanity to make the world more beneficial for him. But we must tune up with it. We can not simply close our eyes to the new sun and its shine. After every decade, specific new ways of working come up and replace the old ways and the efficiency they bring. Has not the cell phone reduced the need to carry a torch, camera, watch, calculator, radio, gramophone, and landline phone?
Pakistan and its people can embrace any new technology very quickly, as we have seen in the case of mobile phone use and laptops for working in business and studies. And so,it is expected that once we have overcome our negative anxietyto a positive curiosity and desire to learn, we will use it for our benefit very cleverly.
——The writer is a Professor of English at Emerson University, Multan.
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