Three AIs for the AI Era: Asking Intelligently, Accentuating Innovations, and Avoiding Inequalities

Artificial intelligence (AI) is undoubtedly gaining momentum in all aspects of life, and even though it is not a new concept, its recent accelerated advances show that the sky is the limit in its potential and uses. When it comes to education, the next few years promise to be exciting when looking at what emerging technologies can bring, and there seems to be no escaping an AI-fuelled future in teaching and learning. So, how to incorporate AI in education in the 2020s and beyond, to ensure we are harnessing its power while avoiding complications or challenges? A lot could be said about that, and various positive points and negative aspects could be highlighted, but I will focus here on three prime messages.

Asking Intelligently

Answering questions has always been a key skill to be taught and nurtured in schools. While this will remain important, learning how to ask the right questions is undoubtedly one skill to master in the AI era for all people involved in education, and not just students. This applies to knowing how to formulate a prompt when interacting with a large language model (LLM), and to follow up in an efficient and well-styled manner. Prior to ChatGPT, the traditional approach in Q&As would be students being asked a question and thinking about it, before answering that question. With the new AI tools, they now also need to be (further) trained in thinking of a question to ask, having it answered by an LLM, and then questioning the answer they get.

Accentuating Innovations

Another key element is to empower thinking beyond the boundaries of textbooks and traditional resources, and to allow students’ and teachers’ minds to roam freely. The new AI tools, which should continue to surge in form and scale in this year and beyond, are a great resource for accentuating innovation and emphasising creativity. Emerging technologies are allowing more interaction between the human and the machine, the real and the virtual, and the physical and the digital. This opens the door to new models in education, including additional ways for presenting and explaining a concept, treating a topic in a face-to-face or virtual setting, and tutoring students and differentiating learning. 

Avoiding Inequalities

But beyond these shiny features, there is a need to talk about challenges, because there are many: ethical and regulation considerations, the needed training and infrastructure, and the impact on human interactions, are just a few examples. One major hurdle to overcome when thinking of embracing AI throughout education is an even larger digital divide compared with what we have seen in recent decades. Avoiding inequalities will be crucial in the years to come, even more than before, as if we do not tread carefully, the gap created between those having access and fully using the emerging technologies and those who do not, will potentially grow beyond control. In the context of education, and even at a larger scale, such a divide has the potential to be life changing.

Emerging technologies are surely adding a fascinating layer to the current education landscape, and we are just scratching the surface of what they can offer. How we can ensure that we maximise the positive impact and avoid the pitfalls of such technologies is for us to decide, and this year will be an indicator of where we are heading!

Further reading on AI in mathematics education

In December, Cambridge Mathematics – which brings together the expertise of Cambridge University Press & Assessment and Cambridge University’s Faculties of Mathematics and Education – published our updated guidelines for ‘Engaging with Artificial Intelligence in Research and Writing’. These include definitions of artificial intelligence (including ANI, AGI and ASI) and a summary of potential applications for students and teachers. 

I’ve also coauthored a couple of book chapters with colleagues on ‘The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Learners and Teachers: A Mathematics Education Perspective’ and ‘Harnessing the Power of Digital Resources in Mathematics Education: The Potential of Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence’.

 

Dr Rachad Zaki is the director of Cambridge Mathematics. He started his mathematics career in Paris at Pierre and Marie Curie University, now part of Sorbonne University. He then moved to the UAE where he was a founding faculty member of the mathematics department at Khalifa University, then the Head of Mathematics at the Ministry of Education, and an advisor to the Minister of State for Public Education at the Emirates Schools Establishment. 

These themes have been taken from Cambridge Mathematics' 'Sip & Snack' newsletter. For more 'AI's and relevant content, read the original issue and sign up to the Cambridge Mathematics newsletter.