commentary
Artificial Intelligence is a great instrument for, among other things, differentiated education tailored to the individual student, in order to reduce the gap between the disadvantaged and the advantaged.
Inge GhijsDeputy editor-in-chief
Today at 03:00
Artificial intelligence is often mentioned in the same breath as “threat” – the system is said to threaten our jobs, kill creativity because it can create music, illustrations or literary texts itself, it can damage our thinking by sending fake news out into the world as credible , to such an extent that we can no longer distinguish between what is true and what is not true. According to AI doom thinkers, AI systems would become smarter than humans and thus pose a threat to humanity. Even British computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton, who spearheaded the current AI boom, got scared of his own invention and left Google to warn people about the dangers of AI.
Then it is refreshing to hear a different voice among the youth. The student association sees artificial intelligence and virtual reality not so much as problems as opportunities: opportunities to learn faster and better, a tool to be more correct, to stimulate creativity. Their vision is surprisingly mature. They call on teachers and directors not to bury their heads in the sand and pretend that AI does not exist. Because it exists, it is used and will never go away. Students testify how they are already using it and how it is already being used by teachers. But, as is often the case, its use depends too much on the teacher and the school.
Hopefully the teachers will not panic at the thought that they will have to delve into this again. Because it is yet another extra thing on their plate. In recent years, they have had to continuously adapt to new learning methods, new final objectives, a more diverse class composition, distance learning and digitalization. That is unfortunately inevitable. In education, too, employees must continue to learn for life.
If teachers want to remain in control of how AI is used and abused by their students, they will have to address it. Not using AI in education would be a terribly missed opportunity. Because it is a great instrument for, among other things, differentiated education tailored to the individual student in order to reduce the gap between the disadvantaged and the advantaged.
Using ChatGPT (properly) helps students learn and study almost any subject. The new technology is therefore not a threat, but an instrument with unprecedented possibilities.
