We have been enamored by the rampant capabilities, investments, and outputs of Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI will become a dominant force in the future of business and will play a role in all facets of life, from how we work, live, play, and govern. But to what extent will it be helpful, and how will it be used? These are the current inner workings we are establishing today in real time. How do we use it to our advantage? What are the pitfalls that may be encountered? What are the opportunities? What are the unintended consequences? These are important questions as we look at bridging the gap between AI &HI for a collaborative future.
From a consumer mindset, we know and understand that AI usage is a tool that enhances a product or service to help us in the long run. It is capable of identifying patterns, trends, and predictive analytics and can be narrowed to specific expertise. While there is a wealth of knowledge or data to be collected and analyzed, I want to challenge this view of AI and ask if we are making the best of the original resource upon us, which is our human intelligence.
Many local public schools in the United States need to improve because they have a deficit of resources to meet the needs of the student population and the world around them, which is immersed in technology at every turn. The utilization of technology places us even further behind the curve. Those of us born during an era of early computing technology were short commands of one to two steps maximum. Now, we have batches of commands interconnected with multiple resources and information from which to draw. The ability to learn new things and execute happen in the blink of an eye. At the same time, this is a productive and great time saver. What is to happen when we have babies born into this new era? Where machines are already more intelligent than newborn babies, there is time to develop an understanding of the world around them as a child.
We have the knowledge now as adults who largely grew up with technology and understand or can comprehend AI. However, what happens when we have children who are born and haven’t poured into the Human Intelligence bank of investment? More importantly, how and what can we teach our children to ensure that they have a future that is sustainable for them and their children?
We obviously have the basics first, such as growing, learning, walking, gaining emotional intelligence, etc. But what else can we do to ensure that we have a future that our children will be able to thrive in? Our investment in learning for our children is also part of a learning cycle for us. As parents today, we are in new territory that all parents face. However, we have parents in a new era of technology that parents or children have yet to understand fully. And we won’t know the total list of pros and cons from those who are children until years later. We are witnessing the impact of social media and technology on children and parents today. California recently passed a law limiting the amount of time children can spend on social media in school. It's almost like a warning label on cigarettes. However, teaching children how to handle social media and technology is not the end-all-be-all; it will continue to evolve. So, how will we, as humans, evolve? The answer is investment. We must invest in our children with the understanding that the total capacity of utilization of the brain is still yet unrealized.
We have the capacity to learn and grow, and the brain is a muscle we must continually work to expand. What does this mean? This means that creativity is a skill we must cultivate and not mitigate in schools. In the history of education, teachings have leaned heavily toward standardization, conformity, and heavy usage of the left side of the brain, which is more analytical.
However, if we have a tool that will later heavily lift the analytical weight of what is to come, how can we teach our children to be more left and right-brain savvy? We must learn to cultivate the creative side of our children as it is highly underutilized in our schools. We must teach them the importance of collaboration, innovation, and how to be creative problem solvers. These are the skills that require heavy investment. No matter where we are in life, our brains are multifaceted. From a behavioral standpoint, our layers deepen even more with how we analyze based upon how we generally feel in the moment and also analyzing our safety, which is “Human Nature.”
So, while we have skyrocketing investments in AI and STEAM fields that work together, we must keep in mind the human element of creativity and innovation while attaching further to AI.
Our children ask us, as parents and teachers, to show them the way of today so that they can be prepared for tomorrow. What are we teaching them to ensure that possibility? We must address these questions in real time as our children grow and develop in a world that is a well-oiled machine of change, access, and information.
Let us invest in their adaptability and creativity as we prepare them for the future of their tomorrow. Let us teach them to be creative problem solvers, to be innovative, and to be collaborative. This will help us achieve a bright tomorrow and help them solve for a brighter future for the generations to come.
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