Artificial intelligence (AI) is the one hot topic of today that has been talked about to death over its various aspects; everything from its impacts on all facets of human life to the possibility of it taking over the world (which it denies) has been discussed comprehensively. The most common concern is the latter: humans are in charge and want to stay that way. So, we thought we’d focus on something that is a little less talked about, given that it stands at the crossroads of social sciences and AI—the impact of AI on human learning and behavioral changes.
While many may claim that it is a scholarly topic to be addressed by people from either realm together, the simple matter of fact is this: this is a public debate, and AI’s effects on human learning and behavioral changes are incredible, to say the least. Let us look at the impact of AI on human learning and what exactly we can expect as both AI and human learning progress in perfect synergy.
AI: the impact on human learning
Let us talk about human learning first, since the seminal idea that went on to become the basis of AI was born out of the constant strive that is human learning. Now, it’s the other way around: AI is effectively influencing human learning, and this has brought about incredible changes. Let us look at the impact of AI on human learning.
Personalizing education
The first big impact that AI has had on human learning, is the personalization of education, which has brought the concept of a perfect classroom closer to reality. Previously, a singular teacher had to juggle multiple responsibilities in navigating the classroom and ensuring the provision of knowledge for all students equally. Quite frankly, a tall order. With AI and its ability to detect patterns and act on data input effectively, we now have a situation where personalized education is possible and is in fact, being implemented in smart classrooms across the world, with the highlights being some smart schools in Japan, China, and India. With AI highlighting each student’s weaknesses and strengths and suggesting useful insights for better understanding, this alone has the potential to completely revolutionize how we view education and learning in the era of AI.
Eliminating human error in the transfer of knowledge
One of the primary reasons that AI has caught up at such a lightning pace is the need for the world’s systems to be free of human error. Learning, and broadly, education, has its fair share of human errors, as does the medical field, which is also making extensive use of AI. To that end, human learning and AI combined have reduced the possibility of human error in the transfer of knowledge, and the fact that newer AI models are being trained on the most advanced and latest datasets means that not only will there be no human error, but the one-in-a-million computer error is now also a redundant term. With the advent of AI, we are fast moving towards a time when we could see an absolutely flawless human learning system.
Ensuring free, worldwide access to knowledge
With AI and its global availability, access to education is now more liberal and free than ever. While there are obviously downsides to it, the upsides far outweigh them, and we prefer to look at the glass as half-full. So, with AI, human learning is now global. No financial constraints, location issues, or even lingual barriers; AI has revolutionized it all, and a globally available center of knowledge and information is one of the few fruits of AI and human learning that the world will reap later on.
Emotional, social, and academic learning
AI has had its fair share of criticism leveled at it for some of its effects; most of them seem to echo the criticism that computers in general get that they affect the social and emotional growth of individuals. Similarly, with AI, there is no social and emotional connection; it’s just banal learning. However, that is not true; au contraire. Researchers from Stanford actually documented an increase in both emotional and social capability while interacting with an AI model geared towards education and academics, which fostered increased student interaction. This means that even some of the socially challenged but brilliant students of today will be able to interact in class normally and will be able to use their full potential to help make the world a better place.
Impact of AI on behavioral changes
Tracking human behavior as it evolves with AI is difficult, but not impossible. For instance, social scientists increasingly view this interaction through a positive lens. Initially, there were reservations over the stunted behavioral growth of humans since AI would not be able to replicate the sensory challenges that bring about such evolution. However, as AI grows more sophisticated and the line between AI and real life becomes blurred, the behavioral changes are now quantifiable and positive.
An easy example of that would be AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants, which are becoming increasingly specialized in handling sensitive topics such as mental health support and reinforcing positive behaviors. Furthermore, any conversations that these AI-powered models engage in with humans further increase our reliance on these algorithms, which in turn are trained better and better on how to tackle such questions from human sources. As AI grows, the world will continue to track how human behavior changes, and while we have seen a positive impact of AI on human learning and education, the same may not be the case with behavioral changes.
A word of caution
There is a reason why industry moguls like Elon Musk and one of the pioneers of the AI industry itself, Sam Altman, have voiced their concerns regarding AI. Everybody knows that AI is powerful and knowledgeable enough to tackle mankind, but that is not the issue here. More relevant is the fact that mankind is still not able to efficiently make use of AI for its betterment, and that leads us to the point of collusion between AI and human learning, which we as humans need to pay more attention to.
Strategizing AI for human learning
One of the major reasons why education, academia, and human learning in general have not yet reached their full potential with respect to their synergy with AI is the fact that, quite simply, we lack a proper strategy for the integration of AI and learning. So much can be done; however, the lack of a clear strategy for AI in education is holding us back. Strategies that optimally utilize the power of artificial intelligence in a beneficial manner to aid humans with learning, education, and further extending the scope of knowledge are the need of the hour and, once put in place, could help humanity achieve more than ever before.
In a nutshell,
Like everything else that has come into contact with AI, education and learning have also changed and for the better. Today, information is more accessible than ever. We have models that can predict the outcome of certain educational initiatives, and a general trend of knowledge and its acquisition has taken over. However, unbridled power has always been the Achilles’ heel of humanity, and while we are still underutilizing the power that AI has granted us, we need to take a step back and look around every now and then to ensure that AI does not overpower us, or go beyond the realms of what we can deal with. Efficiently utilized, the impact of AI on human learning will be miraculous, to say the least.
