In a previous blog, I described the trends that led to the current AI renaissance. In this blog, I want to talk about where AI is going and how we can prepare children and young adults to seize on the opportunities emerging from it.
The Global Race For AI Innovation
AI startups are popping up everywhere, not only in the United States but in many places in the world. Canada just announced an investment of $93 Million for AI hubs in its largest cities. China may now be surpassing the US in government funding of AI initiatives as it leads deep learning (a subset AI technology) research along with its booming tech sector led by Baidu. Japan is also investing heavily on the area as a way to foster economic growth with an ageing population. Developing countries are also entering the race as African AI startups emerge and as Brazil hosts the first AI startup battle in Latin American soil. Everybody wants a piece of the AI revolution.
Even so, AI innovation is most likely to come from leading tech giants: Google, Amazon and Facebook. Google, through bold mergers and research investment, is aiming to become an AI-driven company. Amazon, who already leads the digital assistant market and the cloud business, is set to incorporate AI into all its core operations. Facebook is investing heavily in AI to better manage and customize content for 1.4 Billion users. These are just a few examples of how AI is shaping the future of the Tech industry. The company who can turn AI into viable commercial solutions will become the market leader of the future. The company that lags behind will most likely face obsolescence.
What Can We Do To Prepare?
How will this current race impact our future? AI will certainly eliminate jobs, but also create new opportunities. I want to focus on the latter part for now. Complete new industries will emerge as these technologies become widespread in business and government all over the world. Therefore, we need to prepare our kids and young adults so they can fill these new jobs. Hear me out, not every kid will grow up to become a data scientist, robotics engineer or software developer. Yet, as AI permeates different systems, there are some basic skills that the future worker and entrepreneur must be proficient at.
Math is a good example. Developing a strong foundation on math concepts will be crucial. That does not mean every kid must master Calculus by High School. However, we need to debunk the myth that math is only suitable for a minority of very intelligent people. There is no such thing, math is a language that all can learn. For that to happen, we must also change how we teach math. Common Core is an encouraging step in the right direction but much more needs to be done. Math needs to become more visual and more relevant to day-to-day problems.
Another skill is programming. Learning to code should become as important as learning to read. Not all kids turn into voracious readers as adults most know enough to be functional and informed citizens in their communities. Similarly, not all kids that learn coding will become developers but they should have sufficient knowledge to navigate the technological change that is ahead of us.
While technical skills are important, we cannot neglect critical thinking skills. Here is where I believe disciplines like theology and philosophy have a place. Because these technologies will become more and more interwoven with our humanity, we cannot afford to overemphasize the “how” at the cost of asking the “why” and the “what for”. In other words, we need to be constantly asking: “What does it mean to be human in an AI world?”. This will not come naturally in math and coding classes that focus only on skills.
The goal is not only to prepare future workers but empower them to become AI social entrepreneurs, ready to address problems untouched by big business or big government.
I propose an inter-disciplinary approach that teaches both technical skills along with critical thinking. Students should ask the questions of “why” and “what for” right when they learn the “how”.The goal is not only to prepare future workers but empower them to become AI social entrepreneurs, ready to address problems untouched by big business or big government. In the next blog, I’ll be discussing how a grassroots open-source AI movement could work parallel to the one already happening in the business and government sector.
That is when things get interesting.
