Bulletin No. 1, 2021

THE NEW GOSPEL ACCORDING TO A.I. 33 director, is glad that it has got AI through to all its students despite their different academic backgrounds. ‘As much as we’ve tried to tear down the wall between the arts and the sciences in secondary education, old habits die hard, and yet AI is exactly one of those things that take both worlds to do what it should. This was where our first intake of students ran into some problems,’ said Professor Wong, recalling how those with backgrounds in arts subjects battled with programming and those from science backgrounds had trouble doing humanities studies. ‘It eventually worked out, though, and now all our students can handle both the technical and the human aspects.’ BESIDES PICKING UP SPEED IN HIGHER EDUCATION, what more can we do to respond to AI’s rapidly increasing pervasiveness? For one thing, not everyone will attend university, much less specialize in AI. Having in mind an AI education for all, the Faculty of Engineering and the Faculty of Education have partnered to create an AI CUHK’s AI for the Future Project, funded by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, has proposed a pre-tertiary AI curriculum. The curriculum comes in 12 chapters, each further organized into five modules. Piloted in 2019, it is expected to be incorporated into relevant existing school subjects like information technology, mathematics and social education in the future. The objectives of each module are as follows: Awareness To be aware of the history, background and development of the AI technology in question Ethics and impact To explore the use of AI for social good with reference to real-life cases, to appreciate AI’s transformative effects on work and to consider the ethics of AI Knowledge To identify the key concepts and the impact of AI with reference to some of its more interesting applications, especially those that have local relevance Interactions To experiment with AI technology in a laboratory setting Empowerment To acquire the ability to develop end-to- end systems using AI technology