2017 Volume 84 Issue 4 Pages 410-420
The purpose of this paper is to explore how the spread of artificial intelligence (AI) and enhancement will change “academic ability” and “the meaning of learning” for human beings. It also speculates about the nature of future pedagogical challenges. To discuss AI and its implications for society, reports such as those issued by the Cabinet Office's Advisory Board on Artificial Intelligence and Human Society have already been published; however, the issues raised in these materials are as yet limited and have not been examined in depth. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the impact of AI and enhancement on human learning with specific reference to “academic ability” and “the meaning of learning” in order to highlight pedagogical research challenges.
Honda Yuki (2004) refers to the meaning and significance that children feel in relation to learning as “learning relevance” (gakushū reribansu) , which she broadly divides into the two categories of “contemporary relevance” and “future relevance.” Of these, the former refers to whether the experience of learning is itself perceived as interesting, while the latter refers to the sense of whether the learning will be of any use in future. She has also clarified that contemporary relevance for children is a prerequisite for future relevance.
Elsewhere, the Cabinet Office (2017) has concluded that what is critical for education in the age of AI is “education for properly utilizing AI technology” and “the cultivation of capabilities that are essential for human beings and capabilities that only humans can perform.” As examples of the “academic ability” to be so cultivated, the report cites “semantic understanding,” “the ability to call up imagery and stimulate the imagination based on real experience,” “the ability to identify problems in need of solutions,” “communicative ability,” and “the ability to actively explore new information and incorporate different opinions.” However, the targeted academic ability required by what the Cabinet Office (2017) calls “an educational curriculum that develops capabilities that only humans can perform” will grow ever more sophisticated as AI technologies continue to develop.
To address this sophistication, interest is increasing in “enhancements” that make use of research in the fields of AI and cognitive neuroscience. Matsuda Jun (2009) points out that “the idea of ‘enhancement’ risks making human beings the objects rather than the subjects of self-transformation, which threatens to damage individuals' free will and dignity.”
Ours is an age in which it has become difficult to make learning meaningful simply because it may be useful in future. The conclusion of this paper indicates that, to recover the “meaning of learning,” it will be vital to reconfigure the concept of “academic ability” from the perspectives of “contemporary relevance” and “educational accomplishment (kyōyō)”.
