Basic Math Doesn't Matter in The AI Era
AI is evolving faster than most people care to learn and understand it. As the technology advances and integrates into daily life, we need to adapt to new obstacles. Jensen Huang, Nvidia CEO, recently touched on education and AI. Huang acknowledged that basic math skills are being forgotten as students increasingly rely on AI technology. He also points out that losing some skills in favor of newer skills might be a necessary trade-off to focus on learning the higher-end skills required to work with complex systems like AI. He reinforces the idea by comparing previous technology shifts, like computers and calculators becoming standard tools; AI could become a similar basic tool that students can leverage for learning.
The challenge of implementing AI tools in education is balancing the learning process without replacing the fundamentals entirely. As these tools become readily available, we will have to adjust to what skills are important for our kids' long-term development and how they will apply to their future lives and possible careers. This comes down to digital literacy and AI literacy.
The Tool Is Only As Smart As The User
We grew up with the statement "Just Google it," which evolved into "Just ask AI." Most average users' use of AI is no different than using an internet search engine. These days, we can compare it to the first time we used Google, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, etc. AI is powerful, with vast resources and the ability to summarize large amounts of data in a conversational tone that users can easily understand. People will praise and fear how powerful AI tools are because they don't fully understand or use them to their full potential. They are also concerned with data collection and privacy. It's similar to how the internet was originally perceived when most people didn't know it well. The data has always been collected, and we've historically opted into those terms and services long before we became concerned about our privacy.
We were taught digital literacy through school computer labs. We learned the fundamentals of using a computer, accessing the internet, researching information, and checking our sources. Outside of school, we explored the internet on our own and helped build its early social and creative foundations as platforms like MySpace and YouTube grew. The new generation will need AI literacy to optimize their understanding and capabilities with the tools.
AI simplifies many processes that required significant time, technical knowledge, or a higher barrier to entry. Tasks that required specialized skills can be accomplished faster with well-written prompts put into AI tools. A good prompt and understanding how to use AI tools to the fullest are directly related to digital literacy. This arguably makes understanding the fundamentals of technology, the internet, and data matter.
Technology is most useful when people understand how to use it effectively rather than simply relying on it to do everything for them. The strongest tools are the ones people can build on by practicing the basics, understanding how the technology works, and progressively developing those skills. AI can lower the barrier to creating and learning, but digital literacy and AI literacy skills are the difference between those who will excel with AI tools in the AI era and those who will feed the low-IQ era.
Evolving Education With AI
Jensen isn't entirely wrong when he mentioned that losing some old skills in favor of learning specialized skills might be necessary. It's a natural cycle as technology progresses. The caveat is deciding which basics to keep and which to let go. The problem with modern education was giving our kids technology meant to improve their learning while gradually taking away digital literacy courses. The regulatory powers gave the tools, but neglected the curriculum that teaches the foundational skills for students to excel with them. This shift in taking away lessons with technology arguably contributes to the problems we see today that concern child safety online, screen addiction, and everything adjacent to those concerns.
We millennials used our intuition to explore and build with the technology our parents and grandparents didn't understand. Now we're tasked with raising the next generation with the evolved version of the technology we created the foundations for. With proper digital literacy, future generations can do as we did when the internet was new, except their canvas is the internet with AI tools. The possibilities are endless if we refocus on digital literacy and, by extension, nourish the skills to use AI tools for their benefit in the learning process. They are going to have an advantage in the career paths they choose if they refine digital literacy and AI skills early on.
The Real Fears of AI
The fear of AI becoming rogue or dangerous is very real, but it's also misunderstood. AI itself still comes down to the fundamentals of programming and binary language. If-this-then-that, 0 or 1, logic-based. There is still an analog input from a human, where responsibility comes back to the programmer. AI doesn't think for itself and conclude decisions to act on. The processes still require cognitive ideas from the individuals who input the commands and parameters. This is why we circle back to digital literacy and AI literacy to truly understand the devices and software we are using at a fundamental level. The real fear with AI implementation has more to do with addiction to chatbots over interacting with real people, misinformation with poor fact-checking when presenting answers with sources, and misuse of large-scale data collection when it comes to privacy. These fears are as real now as they were back then when the internet first became readily available to the public.
The fear circles back to the lack of digital literacy and AI literacy. We can say AI will take over jobs by simplifying mundane, large-scale digital tasks. Historically, similar shifts happened when automation became standard for production or when e-commerce took over retail. Implementing new technology will always take away many old-skill jobs while creating more jobs that require new skills. This is where Jensen's insight that losing some old skills in favor of newer skills might be necessary for the AI era makes sense when we apply it to the evolution of education and the trajectory of careers implementing AI.
Our Kids Will Lead With AI Literacy
The AI era will be led by our kids. They are young, with motivation and drive to explore and create with new tools as we did with the early internet and social media. This is their shining moment with technology, where they will understand more than we will, and even generations after them will. They have the advantage of learning the tools, trying them on multiple platforms, and setting the foundations for how AI will be used in daily and work tasks. The challenges that will unfold are yet to present themselves. With proper education, practice, and technical know-how, future generations will have more long-term career opportunities that will evolve with the industries that implement them.