Over the past couple of decades, Education outcomes especially in areas like STEM, have been underwhelming to say the least. Now with the rise of LLMs that are capable of solving advanced (but say well-defined problems) universities are concerned about academic integrity and long term impacts it will have on student learning.

I am excited about the future of education. There are a couple of technologies brewing in the labs that will come together and provide an educational experience that would be much engaging. I'm not sure about timelines but technologies like VR, Video generation capabilities, and LLM can provide personalized learning experiences that almost as engaging as video games. Historically education has been a slow adopted of tech so this is a huge deal. Education is the foundation of any nation.

Education is about skills and (exposure to) ideas. The MIT way of education is to build models. In all departments the default approach is to build models that allow us to understand the world and control the world. - Patrick Winston MIT professor

So i think the right thing to do is to embrace these new technologies. There is no other solution anyways, because banning LLMs is like trying to ban Google, it simply won’t work. More importantly though, what this moment really calls for is a complete rethink of how we teach and evaluate students: assessments must assume that AI will be available and still provide enough challenge to push students toward deeper learning.

Pablo Picasso said, It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.

Finland’s education system offers a useful example, emphasizing open-ended projects that cultivate first principles thinking, problem framing, and the art of asking good questions. At the same time, there are growing debates about the ROI of higher education, as students take on significant debt for degrees that don’t always translate into meaningful career paths. This raises a deeper question: is the purpose of education solely to prepare students for jobs, or should it be to equip them to solve the kinds of open-ended, complex problems that even AI cannot?

The most important thing is the curiosity, its to quesiton things.

Einstein said "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed."

All of this should lead to a potential vision statement for our work. e.g
To nurture the human/scientific curiosity, to express oneself and to ask important/ simple/deep questions which can potentially lead to:

  • new inventions(creations),
  • new discoveries,
  • better understanding,
  • better Design(or redesign),
  • healthy/happy community(or society)

Without thinking in terms of strict disciplinary boundaries, thats the purpose of education ! I recommend watching a documentary on Neri Oxman's work at MIT Media lab. Bio-ArchitectureSeason 2 | Episode 2 (September 25, 2019)Abstract: The Art of Design