Amelia Vallejo Duque 9AF
In the past year, there have been countless advancements in the field of artificial intelligence. Hundreds of different AIs have been developed and published for the world to see. While this kind of technology can be groundbreaking and can help us have better lives, many are scared. Because, if a piece of programing can write a text that would take us hours to make in a few seconds, or compose a song in the blink of an eye, what will we become? Will robots replace us? And these people’s concerns are right. AI has the potential to become fundamental in many fields of work and to dramatically reduce the number of jobs that humans must do. That may sound beneficial, but it can be a catastrophe for many.
So, what can society do? How can we stop the disaster that may come our way? What we should do is start to cultivate abilities that artificial intelligence cannot replace. Robots are capable of many things: they can automatize processes and accomplish tasks at incredible speeds, they memorize information in seconds and can outdo humans in plenty of areas. In fact, they might get way better than us in those abilities soon. However, we have different skills that will allow us to go even further, but that is where the real problem is uncovered.
Most of the schools around the world are not preparing our children for a world in which robots take up a big portion of the workforce. They base themselves on a system created centuries ago for a society that revolved around factories, a society where most people ended up boxing products for the rest of their lives. The school system then was perfectly fine. People lived in a community that needed to produce obedient and efficient children that were able to manufacture products mechanically, without questioning why they were doing their job. It sure sounds like a perfect task for beings that are programmed to do specific and repetitive chores.
Do you see the problem now? So, while scientists and engineers around the world are busy creating machinery that will save us from all the boring jobs, most schools are teaching their children to be second-grade robots. That must change. We live in a society that doesn’t value people capable of doing repetitive tasks rapidly and obediently. We have a cheaper way. We live in a world where values such as critical thinking, analysis, improvisation, creativity, problem solving, and decision making are crucial. No robot can surpass us in those fields. So, why are we trying to teach abilities robots can do in seconds? Artificial intelligences are created to aid humans. To do that, schools have to teach children to be competent in areas where robots are not. Then, we can complement each other and avoid a catastrophe.
Thankfully, some countries and schools have also noticed this issue. There have been many significant efforts made to help our children survive in a changing world. Efforts to turn our children not into robots, but into robot-makers. There is still a long way to go, and there are still more school systems failing their students, but change can still come. There is still time to adapt and evolve. Time to help humanity survive in a world threatened to become a machine-run society.