(and if they do, do they talk about electric sheep?)

Having attended the excellent Educating Girls Symposium in Auckland last week, one of the keynote presentations really resonated with us.

Frances Valintine, educationalist and futurist, spoke about the potential of AI and of how unquestionably disruptive it will be. she spoke too about the potential that AI has to drastically change the ways in which knowledge is considered moving forwards and what follows has been inspired by her brilliant talk.

What is the future?

Whilst different portraits of the future are drawn by different constituencies, often depending on their own vested interests, what is clear is that the rate of change and evolution of AI is rapid: the outputs are significantly enhanced and the way in which we interact with AI has evolved too - we are now able to speak with it, for example, rather than simply write prompts.

Similarly, there is agreement that there will be a tipping point, probably one that is reached sooner than we imagine, in which more of what is available online has been produced by AI than hasn’t been produced by AI. There is a potential issue with this because the AI will then increasingly draw from itself, creating a weird sort of circularity. It’s a bit like a photocopy that is made of a photocopy - eventually, the integrity of the initial copy is compromised so much that the original is no longer identifiable. At a really basic, visual level, currently, AI drawings of people can glitch and produce images with six fingers, or three arms: if the tipping point is reached, there is a danger that AI images become increasingly more likely to produce these glitched images than the real images - which is frightening when this is extended to other facts and pieces of knowledge.

Why does this matter?

Well, increasingly, then, AI will reflect current knowledge and understanding, and the role of humanity is to create new knowledge, building on this knowledge of the past.

AI can aid with this: by working alongside it, we will be able to draw up and draw upon vast bodies of knowledge to aid with fresh, innovative thinking.

One thing AI cannot do, though, is build new knowledge through collaboration and discourse. This will remain a fundamental part of humanity: driving forward knowledge and thinking through critical negotiation, debate and consensus building.

All of this, of course, is aided by effective speaking and listening skills. In order to maintain the integrity of thinking, to enable humanity to move forwards, it is more important now than ever that young people are nurtured in environments that prize discussion, that promote dialogue and that allow learning through talk.