Too much dependency on machines by the young population which is in the process of formation and nurturing by the education system in respect to various skills and competencies will be impacting their abilities in different ways. For example, there are schools permitting students to use scientific calculators and programmable calculators from upper primary and high school levels, students are encouraged to bring smartphones to classes, encouraging online interactions, etc. Quite likely this is happening to keep pace with contemporary swing but the flip side to it could be declining numerical and arithmetical abilities, weaker fundamentals, inadequate understanding, flooding of content, diminishing analytical abilities, etc.
Onkar Singh
The buzz around the surreptitious intrusion of artificial intelligence (AI) in various domains has unequivocally sensitised different segments of society. AI is the assimilation of technological developments leading to the creation of algorithms that can produce a nearly realistic environment virtually and demonstrate behaviour that is quite convincing and immersive. It is the consequence of the fourth industrial revolution after digital electronics. For some, it is the technological revolution put forward with the ability to imitate human beings to a large extent while for others it is an onslaught upon human labour and interventions. The concussion of two is disrupting human experiences in various ways. It needs to be seen as to what extent this training of machines for exhibiting cognitive abilities will be impacting human beings.
Ubiquitous use of the internet and gadgets like workstations, desktop computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones, and others has ushered us into an era in which access to knowledge and understanding its usage has become easy and cheap through a series of search engines/assistive technologies leading to the human knowledge storage taking a backseat. As a result, the penchant to comprehend, conceive, analyse and solve problems based on knowledge is getting enfeebled. There are risks involved in it as the degree of involvement of students in memorising is getting marginalised due to the ease of enormous digital memory availability. Surprisingly, people are not even remembering their important telephone numbers, marks, etc as everything is retrievable on devices carried along 24×7. And, the constant endeavour for bridging the digital divide, cheaper data and accomplishing all pervasive internet is making it feasible. The icing on the cake is that this all is said to save time for bigger and advanced problem solving which is viewed as a paradigm shift in the premise of learning and evaluation.
The implications of fast-pervading AI must be seen by considering different generation cohorts. Generation X (born 1965-1980) and millennials (born 1981-1996) appear to be primarily responsible for the IT revolution and for using the available technological advances for cyber-physical systems embedded with artificial intelligence. This generation is in the process of developing and evolving new intelligent systems. The sole focus seems to be on easing life to a larger extent and the automation of activities, machine-assisted decision making and handling of huge databases of information using the power of computer processors has taken centre stage. The philosophy has been to serve everything using gadgets to replace human efforts and application of mind in basic activities considering them to be trivial. Emulating the human style of functioning and germinating cognitive skills in machines to look like and behave like human beings is the cornerstone of today’s technological advancements. It is good from an industry 4.0 perspective too. With the kind of technological development held till now, there is a congenial atmosphere for the growth of AI-driven systems and to capitalise. These technologies look miraculous for a larger section of society but the subservience to machines may culminate in numerous complications to human cognitive skills which may be felt by Generation Z (born 1997–2012) and Generation Alpha (born 2013-2015). Too much dependency on machines by the young population which is in the process of formation and nurturing by the education system in respect to various skills and competencies will be impacting their abilities in different ways. For example, there are schools permitting students to use scientific calculators and programmable calculators from upper primary and high school levels, students are encouraged to bring smartphones to classes, encouraging online interactions, etc. Quite likely this is happening to keep pace with contemporary swing but the flip side to it could be declining numerical and arithmetical abilities, weaker fundamentals, inadequate understanding, flooding of content, diminishing analytical abilities, etc. It is human nature to seek support for performing any task be it cognitive or non-cognitive. The inherent desire of humans is being targeted to be met through AI interventions whether in the form of natural language processing-based chat-bots like ChatGPT, Jasper AI, Bard, Bing AI, CoPilot, Elsa Speak, etc. with varying features. Computers and associated systems are evolving to perform tasks requiring human intelligence by training them on colossal databases to copy humans. But the bottom line remains that in any circumstances, the artificially implanted intelligence using training sets and aptly designed algorithms can never be a complete substitute despite attempts to incorporate emotions into them. Despite the limitations, this will reduce the efforts required by humans and let them use the available time and energy for furthering the developments. Gradually, the world will be having an AI-dominated atmosphere with the preponderance of deep learning algorithm-driven virtual tutors, virtual experts, travel assistants, tracking systems, recommendation tools based on individual preferences, virtual personal assistants and other developments. Quite likely the young generation will be adapting to this virtual eco-system and it may affect their cognitive skill development adversely. The numerical, analytical, writing and comprehensive abilities must be protected for the youngsters at any cost, or else the enslavement to machines will curtail human competencies that will be difficult to restore.
There will be some individuals who inculcate abilities from their perseverance while others will be getting them from the AI-enabled tools. As a result, those getting proficiency out of hard work will be dispirited and the phony performance of AI-assisted individuals who are devoid of core abilities may have intense ramifications in due course of time. The use of AI in education must be embraced with care else the core deficiencies in upcoming generations could be pernicious.
(The author is the vice chancellor of Veer Madho Singh Bhandari Uttarakhand Technical University. Views expressed are personal)
