AI and a new education

In the world of artificial intelligence (AI), which is already a reality, we will see every day how it will impact our lives more and more, in almost unimaginable ways. AI is much more than data analysis algorithms to sell us something. Its most sophisticated elements are evolving towards programming so that computers learn by themselves and teach themselves based on the results they obtain, for which they use the immensity of data that they absorb second by second.

Everything about our behavior feeds the AI: where and what we eat, what we wear, what we read, what entertainment we enjoy, what sport we play, how we move, where we live, or if we move from one city to another, etc. Virtually all of our behavior is already recorded. Leading academics who have studied the new economy of the digital world have called this “surveillance capitalism.”[1]”.

In this new sector of the economy, the OpenAI company has stood out for its innovations. Its purpose, as explained on its site, is to “ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.”[2]”. The languages ​​on the OpenAI page are either English or Chinese.

On November 30, they launched their most recent innovation to the public: ChatGPT, an AI engine to develop content, “optimizing language models for dialogue.” It’s an amazing program. Orders can be given such as: write me a 1,500-word conversation between two lovers who talk about how many children they want to have. With that instruction, ChatGPT throws you a short essay on that topic.

As they describe on their site: “We trained this model using Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF), using the same methods as InstructGPT, but with slight differences in the data collection setup. data. We trained an initial model by fine tuning: human AI trainers provided conversations interpreting both parties: the user and an AI assistant. We gave trainers access to suggestions written by the model to help them draft their answers. We mix this new dialog dataset with the InstructGPT dataset, which we transform into a dialog format[3]”.

I bring up this new computer program (there must be many more) due to the urgent need to rethink the educational system in our country. How to teach and what to teach? How to ensure that children and young people who are currently in school receive sufficient preparation to take full advantage of AI? What role should the teacher play in a new teaching-learning dynamic? What training do teachers require for this? What content should study programs have? What skills do they need to develop?

Many say that to change the country we need to invest more and better in education, but AI forces us to go even further: a redefinition of pedagogy and content is required. This year will culminate with the candidacies of all political parties for the 2024 presidential election. It would be very encouraging to hear proposals for profound transformation in this matter. It is essential for the country, society, and a development with greater well-being.

[1] Zuboff, Shoshana. The age of surveillance capitalism. paid, 2021

[2] https://openai.com/about/

[3] https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/