How AI Will Change Schools and Education Forever

When you look back at your school years, you might remember them as the best or worst time of your life. Regardless of your perception, most of us can agree that homework was often a tedious task. Writing long paragraphs about random topics in language classes, analyzing the meaning of centuries-old books, or summarizing movie plots took up a significant amount of time. Today, with the rise of AI, these tasks can be completed within minutes. This leads to a pressing question: "Will AI kill schools and education?"

To answer whether AI will kill schools and education, we first need to define what school and education are. By definition, a school is an institution designed to educate people. This can include a variety of institutions, such as dance schools, but for this article, we will focus on traditional academic institutions. Schools teach knowledge, morals, how to become a functioning member of society, and critical thinking skills.

One could debate whether schools succeed in their tasks. In my opinion, they often fall short, but that’s a discussion for another article.

As mentioned above, schools are meant to educate people. But what is education? Education is the process of receiving instruction that leads to an increase in knowledge and personal development. Now that we understand the difference between school and education, how will AI change them?

In recent years, we've witnessed exponential growth in AI technology. AI systems like ChatGPT can understand requests and provide answers in various fields, including math, science, and history. DALL-E can create near-photorealistic images based on user inputs in a short time. With AI developing at such a rapid pace, it's reasonable to question whether school and education are becoming obsolete.

The main argument in this debate is that people might not need to go to school or educate themselves anymore because AI can handle tasks and homework. For instance, ChatGPT can write essays, DALL-E can create images, and Suno can compose music.

However, this perspective overlooks several critical aspects. Schools are not just about learning information. They are about social interaction, becoming functioning members of society, and forming friendships. Moreover, we will still need professionals in the future, such as engineers, doctors, mechanics, and nurses. AI relies on existing knowledge to function and cannot independently create new works or perform tasks that require human empathy and physical presence, such as caring for the elderly.

If AI were to take over all jobs, life might become monotonous. Instead, we should consider how to integrate AI into our educational system to enhance learning and progress.

In conclusion, AI will not kill schools and education. It cannot teach the social aspects gained through schooling. We will still need professionals like engineers, doctors, and nurses in the future. However, AI offers an unprecedented advantage for today’s generation to become one of the smartest yet. Therefore, we should focus on how to incorporate AI into our educational systems effectively.

Reflect on your own life and situation, whether you are in school or have a job, and ask yourself, "How can I use AI as a tool to help me reach my goals?" Once you find the answer, leverage AI to achieve those goals.