Bulletin No. 1, 2021

34 CHINESE UNIVERSITY BULLETIN NO.1, 2021 AI: EDUCATION Prof. Thomas Chiu Department of Curriculum and Instruction curriculum for junior secondary students under the CUHK Jockey Club AI for the Future Project. Currently in its pilot phase, the curriculum contains 12 chapters, which cover topics like the principles of AI and how machines perceive and interact with the world. A designer of the curriculum, Prof. Thomas Chiu of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction said it is far more than just about the textbook knowledge and passing exams. ‘While we definitely want students to learn something about AI, it’s also about stimulating interest in the subject such that they will want to find out more about it later in their life,’ said Professor Chiu. ‘What we’re hoping to cultivate is a readiness for AI, which will allow them to live with AI without the anxiety we’re seeing a lot of, even if they’re not pursuing the subject in an academic setting.’ One of the things the curriculum will alert students to is the disruptions AI will bring to the job market. It is inevitable that AI will eliminate certain occupations as both Professor Chiu and Professor Wong pointed out, but it will also free us from mechanical work and allow us to focus on creative tasks. Meanwhile, work in general will require some knowledge of AI the way it requires IT knowledge now. The curriculum, according to Professor Chiu, is precisely designed to prepare students for this future of work. ‘With all the virtual composers, for example, students who want to make music will have to be prepared to take on a more creative role,’ said Professor Chiu, echoing what other researchers have said about humans’ place in art in the age of AI. As Professor Wong reminded us, this will be a great opportunity to finally give attention to developing personal qualities like innovativeness and humanistic thinking, which have been neglected for far too long. One might question if a junior secondary student is ready to learn about AI given the complexity of the maths and science it involves, but Professor Chiu has an even more ambitious vision. ‘I believe there will eventually be an AI curriculum for primary schools. In some countries, they’re teaching AI at kindergartens, specifically the kind of thinking that goes into developing and using AI,’ he said. ‘We’re well aware this is foundational education, and there’s no way students can learn everything at this level. We can, however, teach them concepts that are appropriate to the things they’re already learning in related subjects, like computer literacy, maths and social studies.’ WHAT ELSE MUST WE DO? Early on in our story, we discussed the importance of digital literacy, an awareness of the ethical implications of digital technology as well as the technology itself. Indeed, no one will be truly ready for AI without an education of its ethics, a serious reflection on all the moral concerns we have touched on and many more. In the AIST programme, students are required to take a course addressing some of the ethical issues, and at the Department of Philosophy, a course covering AI ethics is being offered. Similarly, DSPS students are always asked to consider the moral significance of the technological trends they are learning about. ‘Technology should not only be a matter of speed and performance,’ said Professor Wong. ‘What are the pros and cons of a smart city? When does it become a surveillance city? These are the sorts of questions our students get with a chance to look at real-life cases.’ And as grim as some of these problems are, it is never too early for our children to confront them. Aiming for what Professor Chiu calls ‘a local understanding from a global perspective’, the curriculum they are proposing will encourage students to consider topics like autonomous vehicles and machine bias with reference to examples around them while recognizing the extents to which these problems are universal. But as anyone who have studied in Hong Kong will know, ethics is rarely given much attention in the traditional curriculum, either on its own or in the context of another subject. After all, it is rarely covered in assessments. How are we to ensure that ethical discussions do not become mere footnotes in the new curriculum?While Professor Chiu said the curriculum is not designed to go with assessments, the team did make the effort to put ethics centre stage. ‘In addition to a separate chapter for AI ethics in general towards the end, each of the curriculum’s other chapters get time for ethical discussions specific to its theme,’ he said, explaining how it should not get left out along the way. ‘We’re really giving quite a lot of emphasis to it in our design.’ SO WHAT DO OUR EDUCATORS HAVE IN MIND for the future of AI education? For both the AIST and the DSPS