In a time of fast technology breakthroughs, the incorporation of artificial intelligence has emerged as a revolutionary force changing many things in our lives. Education as a crucial pillar of human growth, is positioned at the turning point of conventional methods and cutting-edge technologies. The incorporation of artificial intelligence into educational environments signals an evolutionary change offering personalized learning experiences and new potential for teachers.

Matthew Lynch is one of the leading writers on the benefits of artificial intelligence in education. His view regarding this matter is that while there are some benefits of using artificial intelligence in education, we must keep a close eye on its advancements and wider implications for our society. Some of the world’s richest people like Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking have been warning people about AI while pouring big amounts of money to stop artificial intelligence from advancing. Even though companies might have good intentions behind them Musk fears that we may create something evil by accident that would be capable of destroying mankind. According to Musk, “biological and artificial intelligence” have to be combined. Artificial intelligence not only puts at risk teaching employment, but it also reduces creativity, socialization, and human contact. While data and robotics make our lives simpler and have the potential to enhance concepts like schooling, creativity remains essential. Creativity, empathy, and affection are what we will still have in comparison to machines, and if we lose them at some point we are lost. While we can make AI part of our education system, we must be very cautious in its development and role in our society. Moving too fast may punish us in a terrible way if we rush the implementation of AI in the education system.

Morals and ethics

When using any type of AI ethical considerations are important. After all an AI program is as ethical as its developer. We, humans, have a moral compass. It separates right and wrong. When we witness an injustice, our brain alerts us that something is not right. The actions we take afterward are in our own hands, but we differentiate right from wrong. Our moral compass is shaped by our environment and education but most of us have one of these compasses. A compass like this is missing in artificial intelligence. In reality, it is missing of any form of compass. Artificial intelligence can only distinguish between right and wrong by using evidence that includes the words “right” or “wrong” associated with them. AI does not have self-awareness, nor does it have empathy, which is the foundation of ethics. When it comes to AI, the only moral compass that exists is the one of its creator, who ultimately establishes the standard of what he considers right and wrong.

The potential benefits

Personalisation: It may be quite challenging for a single teacher to determine how to address each student’s requirements in a classroom. AI systems can target education based on students’ strengths and weaknesses and effortlessly adjust to suit every student´s particular requirements for learning.

Tutoring: Artificial intelligence systems are able to evaluate the way a student learns and its prior knowledge to provide customized assistance and coaching.

Grading: Grading exams run much faster by a machine than a human by following an answer table that has been already made beforehand. A machine can also grade much broader assignments that require a large amount of data in order to give feedback. Machines have the ability to store large amounts of information which would make grading more reliable. I would also remove possible bias grading done by a human. A machine is less likely to fall into favoritism.

Course quality feedback: If a large number of students are providing erroneous answers to questions educators could target changes in materials and techniques by using AI to identify the precise knowledge or ideas that students are lacking.

Feedback: Individuals may be hesitant to take chances to receive critical feedback in the educational environment, but with AI students may feel more secure making errors that are required for learning while getting the feedback they require for development. Students can also receive more immediate feedback as it doesn’t require the effort of a teacher.

The majority of the promises for AI in education are centered on minimising time spent by teachers on monotonous activities in order to open up their resources for more significant duties.

This is in my opinion the smartest way of implementing AI in education. It would not change education completely but would free up space for teachers to focus on duties that require a human to take care of.  A similar type of trend can be observed in the work field as a whole. Monotonic line work that doesn’t require human presence is threatened to be taken over first by machines which would leave room for people to move on to do more meaningful work that is fulfilling. AI will take jobs from us in the future, but it will certainly generate new ones.

In conclusion, I would say that AI can very well be implemented into education in small portions where it doesn’t change things dramatically. I would divide things in a way where teachers take care of the teaching and AI takes care of feedback and grading. The bigger data bank gives AI an advantage compared to a teacher to achieve a more equal grading system and leave teachers with more time to focus on the students and their wellbeing.

Sources:

https://onlinedegrees.sandiego.edu/artificial-intelligence-education/

https://towardsdatascience.com/the-importance-of-ethics-in-artificial-intelligence-16af073dedf8

https://www.theedadvocate.org/vision-future-artificial-intelligence-education/