In the case of Artificial Intelligence (AI), we are facing a second boom. As of 2010, the smartphones They give a very important leap to mobile phones and the improved incorporation of Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant year after year showed what could continue. The same with the development and use of chatbot either bots simply, which have become widespread in social networks to create trends, even to influence the political decisions of a segment of society, as happened with the triumph of Donald Trump in 2016.
Now, the best-known and most fashionable AI subfield is Machine Learning (Machine Learning), which consists of the use of algorithms to identify patterns in large stores of information and predict probably statistical results. OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Bard, and Microsoft’s Sydney are examples of this type of AI.
There are gaps, challenges and problems that AI entails and that we have to face; legal and regulatory aspects that urgently need to be addressed or foreseen, as well as political, ethical and, of course, educational, school, didactic aspects. In this case, a comprehensive educational policy aimed at teacher training will be required, not only a technological update, but training in the core aspects of society, culture and subjectivity that will be modified by the incorporation of these advances into life. everyday life and that will generate unprecedented transformations.
For those of us who are teaching, these technological advances put us in the task of knowing different fields of knowledge and, technology, knowing in greater depth about our areas of professional training; in general, to have a great management of information (discernment, hierarchy, analysis, understanding and interpretation). These are core aspects in teacher training that all educational policy must consider.
Noam Chomsky, Ian Roberts and Jeffrey Watumull (04-23-2023), two linguists and an AI expert respectively, say that programs like the ones mentioned have been praised as if they were the fulfillment of a prophecy, where mechanical minds surpass human brains both quantitatively and qualitatively.
Yes, these programs, like ChatGPT, can ‘create’ texts, musical compositions, images, paintings, among other cuteness, which has unleashed a storm of opinions that oscillate between triumphalism and scandal. The media and academic spaces have dedicated themselves to explaining either its benefits, scope and magnificence or the risks, human replacements, possible conspiracies and the definitive war between AI machines and humans.
Perhaps that day will come – say Chomsky, Roberts and Watumull (2023) – but not yet, very “contrary to what is read in hyperbolic headlines and what is calculated through foolish investments”. Surpassing human intelligence is not possible yet and will not be possible if “machine learning programs like ChatGPT continue to dominate the field of AI. It is both comical and tragic, (…) that so much money and attention is focused on something so insignificant, something so trivial compared to the human mind.” (Chomsky, et. to the., 2023) In short, AI is not a panacea, nor is it the beginning of machine domination -perhaps that has already happened a long time ago, but not in the way we imagine. What is clear is that it must be known and understood to avoid absurd Manichaeism or outlandish fantasies.
A few weeks ago I heard an expert in AI applied to education say that ChatGPT and its similar ones are a mere tool and that everything depends on how we use it; Later, in that same talk, she heard the alarm from some of the attendees regarding the possible awareness of AI and the consequent domination over humans. And that is the point, it is neither one thing nor the other.
