Higher Education Minister R. Bindu has called for imbibing the merits of artificial intelligence (AI) in the learning process, while evolving ways to mitigate its hazards.
Inaugurating a two-day conclave on ‘Generative Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Education’ organised by the Institute of Human Resources Development (IHRD) here on Saturday, Dr. Bindu said teaching and learning would no longer be the same with the emergence of emerging technologies like AI.
She said the application of AI could provide a more personalised learning both in terms of the options and pathways that were open to the learner and in the pace that each learner could adopt. “The present education system that steamrolls and flattens individual talent will be replaced by a system that responds to the abilities of the individual learner and paves the way for their unique development,” she said.
Dr. Bindu added AI would provide an assortment of videos and texts that could delineate and illustrate a particular idea for the benefit of students in ways better and more efficient that a teacher could do. Challenging students beyond what AI can do could become the challenge teachers were going to face in the future, she felt.
Digital divide
Delving into the potential threats posed by the technology, the Minister said the extensive use of AI could marginalise the digitally deprived sections of the society and thus aggravate the difference between haves and have-nots. As a result, the more techno-savvy education becomes, the more elitist and discriminatory it would turn against the poor who could not afford such high-end technology. AI could also open a Pandora’s box of moral and ethical issues that arose out of deceptive practices, she said.
Digital University Kerala Vice-Chancellor Saji Gopinath, who chaired the inaugural session, said the socio-economic significance of the technological process that transformed mere data to wisdom. Director of Collegiate Education Sudhir K., IHRD director V.A. Arun Kumar, and College of Engineering, Attingal, Principal Vrinda V. Nair, also spoke.
Experts from various institutions within and outside the country including Viraj Kumar of Indian Institute of Science (IISc); Jayakrishnan of National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL), IIT Madras; Clif Kussmaul; and Ajith Abraham delivered lectures on various facets of AI. The conclave will conclude on Sunday.
