Overcoming Linguistic Barriers

In this world, there are many people who do not speak the language that they were born with on a daily basis. Online resources are already providing more help with communicating than ever before, but perhaps we can imagine that AI may one day allow us to adopt the writing styles of others. Speaking English as a 2nd language, I often worry about whether my intended meaning will come across in my writing. What if I could ask an AI chatbot to edit my writing to be written in the Queen’s English with a friendly tone? Then I would no longer have to worry about my intended meaning getting lost in translation. I can even imagine a world where people sell their writing styles. All in all, this could minimise the gap between locals and non-locals, and natives and non-natives. Such a feat is no longer trivial part of a science fiction film, but rather a fast approaching reality.

Pseudo-creativity

In Chapter 2, I highlighted that ChatGPT is not yet truly creative linguistically. However, this does not necessarily mean that AI is not creative at all. I asked Chatty to define creativity: xxiv As an example, I asked DALL-E 2 to generate a picture of a goat unicorn with a robot friend. It gave me Figure 1. Who is the true creator of this picture? Can I take sole credit because I provided the prompt? Or should DALL-E 2 be credited too? If DALL-E 2 is to be credited, then how can we say AI is not creative?

Jieun: Chatty, what is creativity?

Chatty: Creativity is the ability to generate new and original ideas or concepts, or to develop new ways of thinking about or approaching a task or problem. It is often associated with the arts, but can be present in any field or endeavor. Creativity can involve combining existing ideas or knowledge in new ways, or coming up with entirely new concepts or solutions.

When I asked Chatty if he is creative in Chapter 2, he responded, ‘I can generate new and original responses within the scope of my training, but I am not truly “creative” in the same way that humans are.’ Essentially, ChatGPT is not creative because it can only create based on what it has learned from its data set. This idea can be challenged. As mentioned in Chapter 3, AlphaCode can create code to answer open-ended questions, and LG now has an AI fashion designer. In Korea, a novel called The World From Now On (지금부터의 세계 Jigeumbuteoeui segye) was released in 2021, written almost entirely by an AI author named Birampung (비람풍) which refers to the big storm when the universe is created or destroyed. The book was then edited by Kim Taeyeon.xxiii In November 2022, OpenAI also released DALL-E 2, which can ‘create original, realistic images and art from a text description. It can combine concepts, attributes, and styles’.

Jessie versus DALL-E 2

To test the difference between AI and human thinking, I also asked my 10-year-old daughter Jessie to do some drawings for me. I asked her to draw me some pictures of her life with artificial intelligence. Figure 2 shows a drawing of her sitting with a robot on a hill. The robot is projecting an image of a unicorn goat for her. Figure 3 shows an image of Jessie doing homework. At the top, she works alone and gets the answers wrong. At the bottom, the robot helps her and she gets them all right, so her teacher gives her a thumbs up. In Figure 4, Jessie depicts the story of her and her robot friend stealing a jar of sweet treats from the cupboard. When her mum (me) finds out, she is angry, and so Jessie and the robot return the jar to the cupboard. After Mum (me) gives Jessie a biscuit and the robot some oil. Figure 5 shows an image that DALL-E 2 generated from the prompt ‘robots and humans living together harmoniously in a one-line drawing’. The image is relatively bland, depicting two humanoids that are perhaps talking or dancing together. My 10-year-old daughter’s drawings are much more imaginative and enriched than the AI’s drawings, highlighting how limited generative AI’s creative process can be. AI is reliant on the human to give an interesting and detailed prompt: ‘robots and humans living together harmoniously’ was not enough for it to create anything greatly imaginative. If I were to ask DALL-E 2 to draw a child sitting on a hill with a robot projecting the image of a dog, then perhaps it would have drawn something similar to Jessie, but then that would have been a result of Jessie’s creativity, rather than DALL-E 2’s. When I asked Jessie why she drew what she drew, she said it was ‘just because she wanted to’, this is something that AI is innately not capable of doing.

AI-Human Division of Labour in the Education Sector

As an educator myself, I am deeply concerned by the effects that advanced language models such as ChatGPT could have on the traditional methods of school examination and assessment. Returning to the functions of ChatGPT that were listed in Chapter 3, the chatbot has the ability to answer questions, generate text, translate, and analyse data and sentiments. These are all skills that we teach and assess in schools and universities. Should we be teaching our children these skills anymore? Could they ever compete with AI in these areas and come out on top? Afterall, DeepMind’s AlphaGo beat 18-time world champion Lee Sedol in a Go tournament 4-1.xxv Is it fair to put our children up against this kind of hegemonic power?

The question of how to approach education assessment in the age of advanced AI is one that we must engage with right away. The shift away from paper and pen assessments in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic has only accelerated the need for new and innovative solutions. It is clear that we cannot go back to the old ways of assessing student performance, nor can we simply hide from the implications of these technologies. Our students are more tech-savvy than ever before, and some may already be using these tools to their advantage. As educators, it is our responsibility to stay ahead of the curve and find new ways to assess student learning and performance that are fair, rigorous, and truly reflective of what our students know and can do. We must embrace the challenges presented by these technologies and find ways to harness their power for the betterment of our students and our educational system as a whole.

It is easy to blame technological advancements for the challenges facing our educational system. However, it is important to recognise that we cannot simply reject the use of generative AI in education. Instead, we must strive to create an ecology in which we can coexist with AI in a way that is beneficial for all. To achieve this, we must find the right division of labour between AI and ourselves. In education, this means separating the roles of knowledge memorisation and knowledge application; the very parameters of education must be reset to reflect this. Rather than solely teaching students to memorise facts and acquire basic skills, we must focus on teaching them how to use knowledge and data to gain insight. The ability to use data is becoming increasingly important, as it is more valuable than simply memorising facts.

AI advancements mark the end of traditional teaching methods and calls for a new approach to education. It will take time to fully understand and implement this new approach, but now is the time to begin the process. The final countdown has begun, and we cannot afford to wait any longer. As a parent, I am worried about what will happen if my daughters become aware of these technologies and begin to use them for their homework. They are growing up in a digital world and for them, the computer is an integral part of their daily lives. It is only a matter of time before they figure it out and start using these technologies to their advantage. Some schools have already made moves to ban ChatGPT on their school internet networks, but what good will this do? Children will still be able to access ChatGPT on their home networks. Gen Z and Gen Alpha are digital natives. My children were born into a world with computers, smartphones, Wi-Fi, social media, and search engines. They took to the digital world as a fish takes to water. In comparison, I was only exposed to the digital world in my late 20s. Policymakers are rarely of the digital native generations, but they need to understand the perspective of Gen Z and Gen Alpha to make productive decisions. Restriction is not the way forward. Rather than trying to seize control, policymakers must consider how we can best live together with AI.

Rethinking AssessmentThe end of knowledge checks, summaries, and text analysis

We can no longer assess students through tasks such as memorisation, summing up, and text analysis. These will be tasks that AI can handle for us with ease. Instead, we need to create tasks, such as making meaningful questions, drawing insights, and checking and evaluating true information and nearly true information. In the near future, I believe we will face the reality that we need assessments that are more tailor-made, and we will not be able rely on conventional exam tools anymore. This is the moment when human creativity is most needed to devise ways to assess and teach in the AI age.

AI-Human Division of Labour in the Job Sector

AI does not only foretell an education revolution but also a revolution in the working world. Both administrative and creative jobs could be replaced with generative AI bots. I asked Chatty about this:

Jieun: Which jobs could be replaced by generative AI in the future?

Chatty: Some jobs that could be potentially replaced by generative AI in the future include:

- Content creation (e.g. journalism, copywriting)

- Data entry/analysis Design (e.g. graphic design, fashion design)

- Marketing (e.g. campaign management)

- Translation

However, it’s important to note that AI is not expected to completely replace these jobs, but rather augment and support human workers in performing certain tasks.

Jieun: Which jobs could ChatGPT replace in the future?

Chatty: ChatGPT could potentially replace or augment some tasks in the following jobs:

- Customer service/support

- Data analysis and reporting

- Information retrieval

- Virtual assistance

- Translation

However, it’s important to note that AI technology like ChatGPT is not expected to completely replace human workers, but rather work alongside them to support and improve their tasks.

The number of job sectors that could be affected by the advancement of AI is not few. As Chatty points out, there will likely still be human employees to direct the AI, but it is likely that human workforces will shrink whilst AI workforces grow. Whilst this might us release from the hold of mundane jobs, what will the displaced workers do? How will the job market function in the AI age? How will we all be able to make a living? AI might even be able to do my job in the future – it helped me with the referencing in this book!

We must also question who will benefit from the development of AI workforces. Those at the top of their companies will likely retain their jobs to steer the company, benefiting from infinite productivity of AI. Meanwhile, those on the lower rungs, who need their jobs the most, will likely be made redundant. The super-rich will only get richer. The move to an AI workforce may also have global implications by further exacerbating the wealth divide between nations, as rich, technologically advanced nations will have the upper hand. This is precisely why we need to stop and think. If the majority of us lose our jobs in the next few decades, is that actually a good thing for society? How can the economy function if a workforce is no longer needed?

Preventing an AI Tsunami

I know that people are worrying and trying to prepare for what is to come during the AI wave.xxvi The offline world is much slower to change and adapt than the online world. As such, the offline world is always lagging behind. Even though the pandemic gave rise to hybrid working and made meeting online the norm, so many people have to meet and discuss to make changes in the offline world that it cannot be said that our lives have become truly digital yet.

AI is like an Aladdin’s lamp: it can fulfil all our wishes, but it does not come without consequences. While we may wonder at the amazingness of new technology, there is also a chilling reality. The education sector will need a total upheaval, the job market will be left in disarray, and we may also lose our privacy. Who will own all the personal information that we will feed to AI? We cannot rely on the goodwill of AI developers to ensure our wellbeing.

As the metaverse expands, and the AI wave spreads into all corners of our lives, now is the moment to pause and think about the future of our society. We need to re-engage with the idea of technology with a real understanding that our lives are about to be transformed by developments in AI and the metaverse. Rather than letting the momentum of the AI wave build up into a tsunami that overwhelms us, thereby relinquishing power to the corporations developing these AI programmes, we must proactively devise ways to live with AI that are beneficial to our society. We must make AI our helper, rather than our enemy.

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