1 00:00:05,120 --> 00:00:08,720 Speaker 1: What does AI mean for the future of education? 2 00:00:09,280 --> 00:00:13,119 Speaker 2: How should we be rethinking schools to meet the future? 3 00:00:13,360 --> 00:00:15,320 Speaker 2: And what does this have to do with the invention 4 00:00:15,440 --> 00:00:19,160 Speaker 2: of the printing press in fourteen forty or the calculator 5 00:00:19,480 --> 00:00:22,520 Speaker 2: or the spread of Google? And how is this connected 6 00:00:22,800 --> 00:00:27,480 Speaker 2: to the eighteenth century German writer Gerta or a digital 7 00:00:27,560 --> 00:00:33,400 Speaker 2: replica of the philosopher Aristotle or the two lasting bequeaths 8 00:00:33,520 --> 00:00:39,680 Speaker 2: that we should give our children. Welcome to Inner Cosmos 9 00:00:39,680 --> 00:00:42,520 Speaker 2: with me David Eagleman. I'm a neuroscientist and an author 10 00:00:42,560 --> 00:00:46,520 Speaker 2: at Stanford and in these episodes we dive deeply into 11 00:00:46,560 --> 00:00:49,400 Speaker 2: our three pound universe to uncover some of the most 12 00:00:49,479 --> 00:01:04,639 Speaker 2: surprising aspects of our lives. Today's episode is all about 13 00:01:04,959 --> 00:01:09,440 Speaker 2: the future of education. After all, we're still running our 14 00:01:09,480 --> 00:01:13,840 Speaker 2: school systems essentially as we have since the Industrial Revolution, 15 00:01:14,200 --> 00:01:17,120 Speaker 2: but now we're in a world of AI. And the 16 00:01:17,240 --> 00:01:21,360 Speaker 2: question is are we optimally educating our children for the 17 00:01:21,400 --> 00:01:27,560 Speaker 2: future or are we mostly reiterating what we did mispreparing 18 00:01:27,959 --> 00:01:32,480 Speaker 2: for a world that will quickly be unrecognizable. After all, 19 00:01:32,560 --> 00:01:37,120 Speaker 2: the price of knowledge has dropped precipitously and is rapidly 20 00:01:37,160 --> 00:01:38,200 Speaker 2: approaching zero. 21 00:01:38,920 --> 00:01:41,120 Speaker 1: We are so used to having. 22 00:01:40,920 --> 00:01:44,920 Speaker 2: Lots of jobs where you're paid to have specialized knowledge, 23 00:01:45,040 --> 00:01:48,760 Speaker 2: like in medicine or law, or engineers or actuaries or 24 00:01:48,800 --> 00:01:53,360 Speaker 2: patent examiners or whatever. But with AI that absorbs everything 25 00:01:53,400 --> 00:01:57,280 Speaker 2: that we've written and can do an increasingly precise job 26 00:01:57,440 --> 00:01:59,400 Speaker 2: of knowing things better than we can. 27 00:01:59,760 --> 00:02:02,840 Speaker 1: In a world where AI. 28 00:02:02,360 --> 00:02:06,080 Speaker 2: Aces the SATs and the MCATs and the LSATs without 29 00:02:06,120 --> 00:02:09,280 Speaker 2: breaking a sweat, this is an open question. 30 00:02:08,960 --> 00:02:11,000 Speaker 1: What the future is going to look like. 31 00:02:11,400 --> 00:02:14,040 Speaker 2: I think it would be madness to assume that it's 32 00:02:14,080 --> 00:02:17,840 Speaker 2: going to look much like our present in a decade 33 00:02:17,919 --> 00:02:19,840 Speaker 2: or two from now. This is what many of us 34 00:02:19,880 --> 00:02:22,600 Speaker 2: around Silicon Valley and the world are talking about all 35 00:02:22,680 --> 00:02:26,320 Speaker 2: the time. But how does this affect how we are 36 00:02:26,520 --> 00:02:30,560 Speaker 2: training the next generation? So for the next two episodes, 37 00:02:30,600 --> 00:02:32,720 Speaker 2: we're going to dive deeply into this and we'll see 38 00:02:32,760 --> 00:02:37,359 Speaker 2: some very cool directions and surprises. In today's episode, I'm 39 00:02:37,360 --> 00:02:40,359 Speaker 2: going to lay the groundwork for how we can think 40 00:02:40,400 --> 00:02:44,639 Speaker 2: about brains and education and the two important things that 41 00:02:44,680 --> 00:02:46,799 Speaker 2: we need to be doing for the future. And in 42 00:02:46,880 --> 00:02:50,840 Speaker 2: next week's episode, I'm going to interview Salkn, the creator 43 00:02:50,919 --> 00:02:55,120 Speaker 2: of the con Academy, which is an extraordinary endeavor, which 44 00:02:55,200 --> 00:02:58,120 Speaker 2: educates about one hundred million people in the world every year, 45 00:02:58,600 --> 00:03:01,640 Speaker 2: and specifically Salini are going to talk about what the 46 00:03:01,680 --> 00:03:04,680 Speaker 2: future of education looks like from his point of view 47 00:03:04,880 --> 00:03:08,600 Speaker 2: and what tools he's building to meet the moment. So 48 00:03:08,639 --> 00:03:11,520 Speaker 2: for today, let's start at the center of the issue, 49 00:03:11,560 --> 00:03:14,960 Speaker 2: which is the human brain. The most remarkable thing about 50 00:03:14,960 --> 00:03:18,280 Speaker 2: the brain is what we call neuroplasticity, which is the 51 00:03:18,320 --> 00:03:23,080 Speaker 2: brain's ability to rewrite itself, to be flexible, to absorb 52 00:03:23,200 --> 00:03:27,440 Speaker 2: the experiences of the world and etch them directly into 53 00:03:27,480 --> 00:03:30,320 Speaker 2: the circuits of the brain. So brains come into the 54 00:03:30,320 --> 00:03:34,399 Speaker 2: world half baked, and they absorb the world around them. 55 00:03:34,800 --> 00:03:38,040 Speaker 2: This is how you come to master all the details 56 00:03:38,040 --> 00:03:41,960 Speaker 2: of your language and your culture and the knowledge and 57 00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:45,920 Speaker 2: the mores of your generation. And human brains are more 58 00:03:45,960 --> 00:03:49,680 Speaker 2: plastic than any others in the animal kingdom. They pop 59 00:03:49,720 --> 00:03:55,240 Speaker 2: out uniquely unfinished, and this is why a baby giraffe 60 00:03:55,520 --> 00:03:58,600 Speaker 2: can walk within forty five minutes. But if you've ever 61 00:03:58,600 --> 00:04:01,080 Speaker 2: seen a baby Homo sapiens get born, you know that 62 00:04:01,120 --> 00:04:01,800 Speaker 2: it takes. 63 00:04:01,960 --> 00:04:03,480 Speaker 1: Years to figure it out. 64 00:04:03,840 --> 00:04:09,640 Speaker 2: So we have these massively extended infancies because we are 65 00:04:09,760 --> 00:04:13,640 Speaker 2: wiring ourselves to the world as opposed to dropping in 66 00:04:13,960 --> 00:04:18,000 Speaker 2: more pre programmed. Now, at first blush, it would seem 67 00:04:18,040 --> 00:04:22,120 Speaker 2: that having a very long infancy would be a disadvantage, 68 00:04:22,360 --> 00:04:24,720 Speaker 2: and in some ways it is, But the end result 69 00:04:24,920 --> 00:04:28,320 Speaker 2: is that humans gain capacities that our neighbors in the 70 00:04:28,320 --> 00:04:32,200 Speaker 2: animal kingdom just don't have. This is why a giraffe 71 00:04:32,240 --> 00:04:34,720 Speaker 2: is doing the same thing giraffes were doing a million 72 00:04:34,800 --> 00:04:39,760 Speaker 2: years ago. But humans launch satellites and compose symphonies, and 73 00:04:39,800 --> 00:04:44,760 Speaker 2: erect skyscrapers and build quantum computers. No other species builds 74 00:04:44,800 --> 00:04:48,000 Speaker 2: a fraction of what we build. And that's because although 75 00:04:48,240 --> 00:04:50,840 Speaker 2: most others tend to be tougher than we are, they 76 00:04:50,880 --> 00:04:54,560 Speaker 2: don't have the capacity to absorb the world around them 77 00:04:54,880 --> 00:04:57,800 Speaker 2: to the degree that we do. In each generation, they 78 00:04:57,880 --> 00:05:01,240 Speaker 2: just run the program of being a giraffe. But we 79 00:05:01,560 --> 00:05:04,720 Speaker 2: drop into the world and in a handful of years 80 00:05:04,760 --> 00:05:09,440 Speaker 2: we have learned almost every important insight and discovery of 81 00:05:09,480 --> 00:05:13,560 Speaker 2: the billions of humans before us. We get that, and 82 00:05:13,600 --> 00:05:16,400 Speaker 2: then we springboard into the next generation. 83 00:05:16,960 --> 00:05:19,560 Speaker 1: So what does that mean for the way we. 84 00:05:19,480 --> 00:05:23,719 Speaker 2: Think about educating our children. It means our responsibility is 85 00:05:23,800 --> 00:05:26,440 Speaker 2: to shape this malleable brain. 86 00:05:26,839 --> 00:05:29,960 Speaker 1: Each child has a forest of tens. 87 00:05:29,400 --> 00:05:33,280 Speaker 2: Of billions of little neurons that are spending every moment 88 00:05:33,800 --> 00:05:37,600 Speaker 2: changing the strength of their connections, and plugging and unplugging 89 00:05:37,600 --> 00:05:41,440 Speaker 2: and seeking new locations. Whatever they learn in their childhoods, 90 00:05:41,760 --> 00:05:44,520 Speaker 2: it's stored in the brain, and it's coded in a 91 00:05:44,720 --> 00:05:50,120 Speaker 2: reconfiguration of the network. That's how brains absorb the world. 92 00:05:51,920 --> 00:05:55,400 Speaker 2: So our job with education comes down to one main thing, 93 00:05:55,839 --> 00:05:59,000 Speaker 2: which is to feed the brains of our children as 94 00:05:59,240 --> 00:06:03,000 Speaker 2: rich a diet of high calorie information as we can. 95 00:06:03,480 --> 00:06:07,880 Speaker 2: The problem is that schools are largely being run the 96 00:06:07,960 --> 00:06:10,680 Speaker 2: same way we've done it for hundreds of years, when 97 00:06:10,720 --> 00:06:14,800 Speaker 2: we needed to train children for particular jobs, careers that 98 00:06:15,240 --> 00:06:18,919 Speaker 2: we could reasonably assume would be around and lucrative and 99 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:22,400 Speaker 2: solid in twenty years from now. But we're entering a 100 00:06:22,520 --> 00:06:29,200 Speaker 2: new world now, a world where previously unimaginable technology, artificial 101 00:06:29,240 --> 00:06:32,680 Speaker 2: intelligence that can answer any kind of question this is 102 00:06:32,720 --> 00:06:36,760 Speaker 2: available the way that running water is available. Just imagine 103 00:06:36,760 --> 00:06:40,560 Speaker 2: if you were Mark Twain or President Garfield, or Ada 104 00:06:40,640 --> 00:06:45,320 Speaker 2: Lovelace or Florence Nightingale, the thought of running water would 105 00:06:45,320 --> 00:06:48,760 Speaker 2: have seemed insane to you. But in the nineteen thirties 106 00:06:48,800 --> 00:06:51,760 Speaker 2: there was suddenly a pivotal decade where most of America 107 00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:56,080 Speaker 2: got running water, and suddenly, for the next generation of kids, 108 00:06:56,120 --> 00:06:59,120 Speaker 2: it was just like background furniture, such that by the 109 00:06:59,120 --> 00:07:02,120 Speaker 2: time you were born, you don't even devote a single 110 00:07:02,240 --> 00:07:05,520 Speaker 2: neuron to the fact that you can produce a clean 111 00:07:05,600 --> 00:07:09,120 Speaker 2: little river at whatever temperature you want, the second you 112 00:07:09,160 --> 00:07:12,640 Speaker 2: want it. That's what artificial intelligence is going to be 113 00:07:13,040 --> 00:07:16,360 Speaker 2: for this next generation. Of course, you can open an 114 00:07:16,360 --> 00:07:19,440 Speaker 2: app that has read everything ever written by humans, and 115 00:07:19,480 --> 00:07:22,120 Speaker 2: of course you can ask it anything at all in 116 00:07:22,240 --> 00:07:26,239 Speaker 2: plain English and it will generate an absolutely beautiful answer. 117 00:07:26,320 --> 00:07:29,960 Speaker 2: Of course, it can synthesize pieces of data that would 118 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:33,040 Speaker 2: take you lifetimes to read, and it does it instantly 119 00:07:33,120 --> 00:07:37,000 Speaker 2: and brilliantly, and soon, of course, you can tell an 120 00:07:37,000 --> 00:07:39,200 Speaker 2: AI to act as an agent and go out into 121 00:07:39,200 --> 00:07:41,880 Speaker 2: the world and do tasks for you. So here's the 122 00:07:41,920 --> 00:07:45,200 Speaker 2: thing I want to emphasize. This world of AI is 123 00:07:45,240 --> 00:07:49,280 Speaker 2: going to require different skills than what we were raised 124 00:07:49,280 --> 00:07:54,520 Speaker 2: with and it will offer extraordinarily different opportunities. So this 125 00:07:54,560 --> 00:07:57,840 Speaker 2: is what we're diving into today. How does current technology 126 00:07:58,360 --> 00:08:01,840 Speaker 2: change the future landscape and how can we leverage it 127 00:08:01,920 --> 00:08:06,000 Speaker 2: to rewrite our school systems. So first we know that 128 00:08:06,080 --> 00:08:09,160 Speaker 2: children are growing up in a different world than the 129 00:08:09,160 --> 00:08:12,200 Speaker 2: one that many of us did from their first moments. 130 00:08:12,320 --> 00:08:14,280 Speaker 1: They're in a world of technology. 131 00:08:14,600 --> 00:08:17,600 Speaker 2: News of the pregnancy is posted on TikTok or Instagram, 132 00:08:17,920 --> 00:08:20,680 Speaker 2: the news of the birth is spread on WhatsApp and X. 133 00:08:21,160 --> 00:08:24,960 Speaker 2: Relatives anywhere on the planet immediately see their pictures. And 134 00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:28,480 Speaker 2: they grow up in this world where control all delete 135 00:08:28,560 --> 00:08:32,880 Speaker 2: is as basic as ABC. They have no idea why 136 00:08:32,920 --> 00:08:36,760 Speaker 2: that key on the keyboard is labeled return. Some of 137 00:08:36,800 --> 00:08:39,560 Speaker 2: you may remember typewriters where you had to return the 138 00:08:39,640 --> 00:08:41,480 Speaker 2: carriage to the other side of the page. 139 00:08:41,600 --> 00:08:42,800 Speaker 1: All our kids grow up in. 140 00:08:42,720 --> 00:08:46,520 Speaker 2: A world where photographs are instant, whereas when many of 141 00:08:46,600 --> 00:08:48,719 Speaker 2: us were children, we had to get the film processed 142 00:08:48,720 --> 00:08:51,760 Speaker 2: and it took three days. In the space of a generation, 143 00:08:51,920 --> 00:08:54,960 Speaker 2: things change fast, and the world of very young people 144 00:08:55,000 --> 00:08:59,440 Speaker 2: now consists of millions of podcasts, billions of web pages, 145 00:08:59,600 --> 00:09:01,440 Speaker 2: trily of videos. 146 00:09:01,760 --> 00:09:03,439 Speaker 1: They spend tens. 147 00:09:03,040 --> 00:09:07,760 Speaker 2: Of thousands of hours on mobile phones, video games, texts, emails, 148 00:09:08,120 --> 00:09:11,120 Speaker 2: social media. And this is to say nothing about the 149 00:09:11,559 --> 00:09:14,760 Speaker 2: continental plate shifts that AI is starting to make, which 150 00:09:14,800 --> 00:09:17,600 Speaker 2: will return to in a moment. So as a result, 151 00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:20,360 Speaker 2: by the time they're in high school, they have a 152 00:09:20,480 --> 00:09:23,440 Speaker 2: different world than many of us grew up with. So 153 00:09:24,200 --> 00:09:27,079 Speaker 2: does this change how their brains wire up and how 154 00:09:27,120 --> 00:09:29,679 Speaker 2: they view themselves compared to, say, their parents. 155 00:09:30,280 --> 00:09:31,400 Speaker 1: Of course it does. 156 00:09:32,160 --> 00:09:36,840 Speaker 2: Their exposure has been to fast paced, shortened, interactive information, 157 00:09:37,400 --> 00:09:40,560 Speaker 2: and what that means is the ways that students learn 158 00:09:40,640 --> 00:09:44,880 Speaker 2: and communicate are different. You've probably heard the term digital 159 00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:50,640 Speaker 2: immigrants for those teachers who carry old world traditions and assumptions. 160 00:09:51,000 --> 00:09:53,720 Speaker 2: The idea is that you couldn't live and teach in 161 00:09:53,760 --> 00:09:57,920 Speaker 2: another country unless you learned the language. For many teachers, 162 00:09:58,040 --> 00:10:01,640 Speaker 2: the digital world is a second language that was learned later, 163 00:10:01,960 --> 00:10:04,600 Speaker 2: and any teacher who was a little behind the technology 164 00:10:04,640 --> 00:10:08,080 Speaker 2: ball is now really behind now that AI is here. 165 00:10:08,720 --> 00:10:11,240 Speaker 2: So what does all this mean for the brain of 166 00:10:11,280 --> 00:10:15,000 Speaker 2: a digital native? Well I mentioned that we come into 167 00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:17,400 Speaker 2: the world with brains half baked, and we absorb the 168 00:10:17,400 --> 00:10:19,959 Speaker 2: world around us. And the way this works is that 169 00:10:20,040 --> 00:10:22,959 Speaker 2: in the brain of a newborn baby, the neurons are 170 00:10:22,960 --> 00:10:26,920 Speaker 2: only starting to communicate with one another, but then over 171 00:10:26,960 --> 00:10:30,760 Speaker 2: the first two years of life, those neurons begin connecting 172 00:10:30,920 --> 00:10:33,959 Speaker 2: extremely rapidly, so by the time you hit two years old, 173 00:10:34,000 --> 00:10:38,400 Speaker 2: you have hundreds of trillions of connections and this is 174 00:10:38,440 --> 00:10:41,920 Speaker 2: where you max out. You have as many connections as 175 00:10:41,920 --> 00:10:45,000 Speaker 2: you're ever going to have, and after that it's all 176 00:10:45,040 --> 00:10:46,480 Speaker 2: about pruning. 177 00:10:46,920 --> 00:10:48,360 Speaker 1: Like an overgrown garden. 178 00:10:49,040 --> 00:10:53,600 Speaker 2: Your brain is encoding what it experiences out there. That's 179 00:10:53,640 --> 00:10:56,920 Speaker 2: what those connections represent. Whatever you encounter in the world 180 00:10:57,400 --> 00:11:02,600 Speaker 2: strengthens some pathways, while other pathways eventually go away. And 181 00:11:02,640 --> 00:11:06,440 Speaker 2: that means the process of becoming who you are isn't 182 00:11:06,440 --> 00:11:09,720 Speaker 2: about what you gain in the brain, but about what 183 00:11:09,760 --> 00:11:14,240 Speaker 2: you lose. Think about it like Michelangelo carving away at 184 00:11:14,240 --> 00:11:18,559 Speaker 2: the marble to find the statue inside. That's what your 185 00:11:18,559 --> 00:11:22,840 Speaker 2: brain is doing by keeping those connections that resonate with 186 00:11:23,120 --> 00:11:27,520 Speaker 2: the world. So how your brain turns out depends upon 187 00:11:28,000 --> 00:11:31,880 Speaker 2: what you are exposed to. So given all this is 188 00:11:31,960 --> 00:11:35,880 Speaker 2: of course no surprise that technology affects the brain, and 189 00:11:35,920 --> 00:11:40,120 Speaker 2: that the current generation carries out tasks in different ways. 190 00:11:40,160 --> 00:11:44,440 Speaker 2: With different technologies. They have increased use of some pathways 191 00:11:44,760 --> 00:11:48,840 Speaker 2: and decreased use of others, and that gears today's students 192 00:11:48,960 --> 00:11:52,400 Speaker 2: towards a different kind of learning. Now, I want to 193 00:11:52,400 --> 00:11:54,840 Speaker 2: take a one second tangent, which is that it's very 194 00:11:54,880 --> 00:11:58,920 Speaker 2: difficult to do a rigorous scientific study about growing up 195 00:11:58,960 --> 00:12:02,400 Speaker 2: digitally and how that affects the brain. Why is it difficult, 196 00:12:02,880 --> 00:12:06,640 Speaker 2: It's because you never really have a good control group. 197 00:12:07,120 --> 00:12:09,120 Speaker 2: You can't just look at a bunch of students now 198 00:12:09,520 --> 00:12:13,480 Speaker 2: and run a comparison against a previous generation, because there 199 00:12:13,520 --> 00:12:17,760 Speaker 2: are one hundred other differences between them, including food and 200 00:12:17,840 --> 00:12:20,360 Speaker 2: politics and air quality and on and on and on. 201 00:12:20,600 --> 00:12:23,439 Speaker 2: And you can't easily find another group of students who 202 00:12:23,480 --> 00:12:27,640 Speaker 2: grew up in this moment without being digital, unless they're 203 00:12:27,960 --> 00:12:30,720 Speaker 2: amish or deeply impoverished. 204 00:12:30,960 --> 00:12:31,960 Speaker 1: But then there are one. 205 00:12:31,920 --> 00:12:34,880 Speaker 2: Hundred other differences in how they're being raised, and you 206 00:12:34,960 --> 00:12:38,440 Speaker 2: don't know what you can attribute to the digital technology 207 00:12:38,520 --> 00:12:43,520 Speaker 2: versus something else. So whatever people say are the differences 208 00:12:43,520 --> 00:12:46,679 Speaker 2: with this generation, it's difficult to know which of those 209 00:12:46,840 --> 00:12:49,679 Speaker 2: has to do with growing up digitally and which has 210 00:12:49,720 --> 00:12:52,959 Speaker 2: to do with other issues like politics or pollution, or 211 00:12:53,080 --> 00:12:57,600 Speaker 2: changes in sugar intake or less secondhand smoke or legalized 212 00:12:57,600 --> 00:13:01,160 Speaker 2: marijuana or whatever, none the less. We can point to 213 00:13:01,200 --> 00:13:04,280 Speaker 2: a few things that people have noticed when comparing pre 214 00:13:04,400 --> 00:13:08,720 Speaker 2: Internet and post Internet patterns of reading a page of text. 215 00:13:08,840 --> 00:13:12,960 Speaker 2: For example, so digital natives tend to make slightly different 216 00:13:13,000 --> 00:13:16,840 Speaker 2: eye movements that are essentially f shaped meaning they're more 217 00:13:16,960 --> 00:13:20,440 Speaker 2: likely to quickly scan headlines and then the first few 218 00:13:20,520 --> 00:13:23,840 Speaker 2: lines of paragraphs before moving farther down the page to 219 00:13:23,880 --> 00:13:26,920 Speaker 2: do that. Again, readers from older generations tend to be 220 00:13:26,960 --> 00:13:29,119 Speaker 2: more thorough in they're reading and don't skip. 221 00:13:28,880 --> 00:13:29,600 Speaker 1: Around as much. 222 00:13:30,080 --> 00:13:33,680 Speaker 2: Digital natives are also more accustomed to taking in content 223 00:13:33,760 --> 00:13:37,920 Speaker 2: that has text and images and videos and interactive sliders 224 00:13:37,920 --> 00:13:41,079 Speaker 2: and buttons or whatever, and presumably as a result, it's 225 00:13:41,200 --> 00:13:44,640 Speaker 2: tougher for a digital native to concentrate on a long 226 00:13:45,080 --> 00:13:48,680 Speaker 2: book that is only walls of text, and so digital 227 00:13:48,760 --> 00:13:52,480 Speaker 2: natives seem to be more prone to distractions, as measured 228 00:13:52,559 --> 00:13:56,680 Speaker 2: by them moving their eyes off the text entirely. The 229 00:13:56,760 --> 00:13:59,520 Speaker 2: cool part is that these details of eye movements can 230 00:13:59,559 --> 00:14:02,600 Speaker 2: be tracked, and they're all totally unconscious. In other words, 231 00:14:02,640 --> 00:14:06,000 Speaker 2: it's not a signal that can be easily faked because 232 00:14:06,040 --> 00:14:08,880 Speaker 2: people don't even know they're doing it. I mentioned this 233 00:14:08,960 --> 00:14:12,600 Speaker 2: to illustrate the bigger point that the digital generation is 234 00:14:12,640 --> 00:14:17,079 Speaker 2: exposed to different stimuli and that strengthens different pathways in 235 00:14:17,160 --> 00:14:21,080 Speaker 2: their brains, and that changes how they learn. 236 00:14:21,320 --> 00:14:22,800 Speaker 1: Fastest and most efficiently. 237 00:14:23,160 --> 00:14:25,640 Speaker 2: So for many of us, when we were growing up, 238 00:14:25,640 --> 00:14:28,440 Speaker 2: we got a lot of information taught to us just 239 00:14:28,600 --> 00:14:31,680 Speaker 2: in case we ever needed it. So the Battle of 240 00:14:31,720 --> 00:14:35,560 Speaker 2: Hastings was in ten sixty six, because you might need 241 00:14:35,600 --> 00:14:38,240 Speaker 2: to know that someday, or you might need to do 242 00:14:38,360 --> 00:14:41,520 Speaker 2: geometry later in life, or you might need to know 243 00:14:41,960 --> 00:14:46,960 Speaker 2: the capital of Indonesia. But education has been transforming because 244 00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:50,800 Speaker 2: of the Internet. It's gone from just in case information 245 00:14:51,280 --> 00:14:57,440 Speaker 2: to just in time information. Now young people increasingly pull 246 00:14:57,480 --> 00:15:02,880 Speaker 2: information on demand. New skills are acquired as needed. Do 247 00:15:02,920 --> 00:15:05,120 Speaker 2: you need to understand how to change a bike tire, 248 00:15:05,240 --> 00:15:07,960 Speaker 2: you look it up. You need to understand how this 249 00:15:08,080 --> 00:15:11,800 Speaker 2: math problem works, or what chemicals to use in this situation, 250 00:15:11,920 --> 00:15:12,880 Speaker 2: you look it up. 251 00:15:27,800 --> 00:15:27,960 Speaker 1: Now. 252 00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:31,280 Speaker 2: The reason this new just in time learning is important 253 00:15:31,440 --> 00:15:35,720 Speaker 2: is because the learning is not out of context with 254 00:15:35,880 --> 00:15:39,920 Speaker 2: the question. When you want to know how something works, 255 00:15:40,280 --> 00:15:43,920 Speaker 2: you have the right cocktail of neurotransmitters present, and that 256 00:15:44,040 --> 00:15:47,840 Speaker 2: makes all the difference as far as the neuroplasticity goes. 257 00:15:48,360 --> 00:15:52,280 Speaker 2: When you are curious, the information sticks and in fact 258 00:15:52,400 --> 00:15:55,680 Speaker 2: without any of the neurotransmitter knowledge. The spirit of this 259 00:15:55,800 --> 00:16:00,400 Speaker 2: observation reaches back to the ancient Greeks who loose dated 260 00:16:00,560 --> 00:16:04,440 Speaker 2: seven levels of learning, with the highest level being when 261 00:16:04,440 --> 00:16:08,560 Speaker 2: you're curious about something, then it really sticks. So when 262 00:16:08,600 --> 00:16:13,000 Speaker 2: a child asks Alexa or Siri a question and gets 263 00:16:13,040 --> 00:16:17,400 Speaker 2: the answer, their curiosity allows the information to have a 264 00:16:17,560 --> 00:16:20,600 Speaker 2: better chance of getting edged in than if you simply 265 00:16:20,960 --> 00:16:23,120 Speaker 2: stopped the child and said, hey, I need you to 266 00:16:23,160 --> 00:16:25,400 Speaker 2: memorize this fact that has nothing to do with your 267 00:16:25,440 --> 00:16:27,920 Speaker 2: life right now, and I'm going to ask you about 268 00:16:27,920 --> 00:16:28,440 Speaker 2: this later. 269 00:16:28,840 --> 00:16:30,680 Speaker 1: So when you follow some. 270 00:16:31,120 --> 00:16:34,320 Speaker 2: Rabbit hole on Wikipedia, you click on this link because 271 00:16:34,360 --> 00:16:36,160 Speaker 2: you're curious, and then the next because you want to 272 00:16:36,240 --> 00:16:38,760 Speaker 2: understand that word that you've heard once, and then the 273 00:16:38,800 --> 00:16:43,280 Speaker 2: next because there's some fascinating distinction you've never even thought of, 274 00:16:43,400 --> 00:16:46,400 Speaker 2: and so on, and eventually you end up twenty clicks 275 00:16:46,440 --> 00:16:50,440 Speaker 2: away from where you started. That's an amazing way to 276 00:16:50,800 --> 00:16:55,560 Speaker 2: learn because you are maximizing your curiosity at every step. 277 00:16:55,920 --> 00:17:01,200 Speaker 2: So each successive generation gets the opportunity for more self direction, 278 00:17:01,640 --> 00:17:06,120 Speaker 2: and not surprisingly, our comfort zones come to be different. 279 00:17:06,600 --> 00:17:08,919 Speaker 2: Back in the day, most of what we learned was 280 00:17:08,960 --> 00:17:13,040 Speaker 2: by text or lecture. It was for the most part sequential, 281 00:17:13,520 --> 00:17:16,880 Speaker 2: and one topic was tackled at a time, and most 282 00:17:16,880 --> 00:17:20,080 Speaker 2: of our learning was done independently. Now learning has a 283 00:17:20,160 --> 00:17:24,640 Speaker 2: very different character. There's way more multitasking, and we learn 284 00:17:24,680 --> 00:17:27,639 Speaker 2: from pictures and sound and video, which makes everything a 285 00:17:27,680 --> 00:17:30,840 Speaker 2: lot more engaging. A lot of our learning is interactive 286 00:17:30,960 --> 00:17:35,160 Speaker 2: with websites or games, and we're often networked with other learners. 287 00:17:35,680 --> 00:17:39,840 Speaker 2: Much of our learning now is random access like Wikipedia 288 00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:44,960 Speaker 2: or Google or chat GPT. We connect ideas ourselves. Learning 289 00:17:45,040 --> 00:17:48,399 Speaker 2: is far more hands on than it ever used to be, 290 00:17:49,000 --> 00:17:53,879 Speaker 2: so the way brains seek information has changed, and this 291 00:17:54,000 --> 00:17:56,520 Speaker 2: leads me to a one second tangent about the question 292 00:17:56,960 --> 00:18:02,200 Speaker 2: of ADHD. Current students are used to constantly changing input 293 00:18:02,240 --> 00:18:05,960 Speaker 2: and information sources. They're switching from WhatsApp to instead a 294 00:18:06,040 --> 00:18:10,040 Speaker 2: chat GPT. Does that make a student struggle to concentrate 295 00:18:10,119 --> 00:18:13,919 Speaker 2: in class? Yes, almost certainly it's a factor. But is 296 00:18:13,960 --> 00:18:18,639 Speaker 2: that ADHD in many or most cases? Probably not. This 297 00:18:18,760 --> 00:18:21,760 Speaker 2: is a normal response of their brains to the world. 298 00:18:22,160 --> 00:18:26,280 Speaker 2: The way they scan and multitask means that sitting down 299 00:18:26,359 --> 00:18:30,320 Speaker 2: and being taught from a boring textbook or a droning 300 00:18:30,440 --> 00:18:34,640 Speaker 2: lecturer is not sufficiently interactive or engaging for them. It's 301 00:18:34,680 --> 00:18:39,600 Speaker 2: more difficult to concentrate on, so the onus becomes on 302 00:18:39,640 --> 00:18:43,119 Speaker 2: the educator to meet them halfway. Now, what does that 303 00:18:43,160 --> 00:18:46,080 Speaker 2: look like? Well, now, we have the table set for 304 00:18:46,200 --> 00:18:49,200 Speaker 2: us to move into the world that we find ourselves 305 00:18:49,200 --> 00:18:53,240 Speaker 2: in in twenty twenty five, and specifically the world of 306 00:18:53,440 --> 00:18:58,080 Speaker 2: AI as we all know, modern AI is blowing everyone's mind. 307 00:18:58,440 --> 00:19:03,160 Speaker 2: Every day we see large language models lms pull things 308 00:19:03,200 --> 00:19:06,200 Speaker 2: off that no one programmed them to do or even 309 00:19:06,280 --> 00:19:09,440 Speaker 2: really expected them to be able to do, including all 310 00:19:09,440 --> 00:19:13,560 Speaker 2: the stuff we're now taking for granted, like summarizing books 311 00:19:13,920 --> 00:19:16,960 Speaker 2: or making a video from a text prompt or crushing 312 00:19:17,040 --> 00:19:20,679 Speaker 2: the SATs or LSATs or MCATs. And this is why 313 00:19:20,720 --> 00:19:26,160 Speaker 2: we find ourselves in an era of discovery more than invention. 314 00:19:26,920 --> 00:19:28,320 Speaker 2: And I want to point out that a lot of 315 00:19:28,320 --> 00:19:31,840 Speaker 2: the arguments people have been making about AI not being 316 00:19:31,920 --> 00:19:34,520 Speaker 2: so good at this or that these have been changing 317 00:19:34,720 --> 00:19:37,960 Speaker 2: really rapidly. For example, just a year ago people were 318 00:19:38,080 --> 00:19:41,800 Speaker 2: arguing that AI would make silly mistakes about certain things, 319 00:19:41,840 --> 00:19:45,000 Speaker 2: and couldn't add thirty two digit numbers with each other, 320 00:19:45,040 --> 00:19:48,200 Speaker 2: and sometimes would get the wrong answers in a word problem. 321 00:19:48,520 --> 00:19:50,399 Speaker 1: But in a shockingly. 322 00:19:49,920 --> 00:19:53,840 Speaker 2: Brief amount of time, these shortcomings have all been mastered. 323 00:19:54,080 --> 00:19:57,600 Speaker 2: So it's yet to be seen what challenges will remain 324 00:19:57,680 --> 00:20:00,359 Speaker 2: and for how long we are in for fit a 325 00:20:00,560 --> 00:20:03,679 Speaker 2: ride and it's going to move faster and faster. So 326 00:20:03,760 --> 00:20:07,439 Speaker 2: what does this mean for our school systems? Our students 327 00:20:07,480 --> 00:20:10,960 Speaker 2: are now in a world where the entirety of humankind's 328 00:20:11,040 --> 00:20:14,960 Speaker 2: knowledge has been digested and any piece of information or 329 00:20:15,000 --> 00:20:19,600 Speaker 2: any sophisticated analysis is available to you instantly. What does 330 00:20:19,640 --> 00:20:22,680 Speaker 2: that mean for the next generation? How will the future 331 00:20:22,760 --> 00:20:26,399 Speaker 2: change and what should we be doing about it now? So, 332 00:20:26,520 --> 00:20:30,320 Speaker 2: first of all, let's put this in historical context, because 333 00:20:30,720 --> 00:20:34,320 Speaker 2: in times like these, it's always useful to remember that 334 00:20:34,400 --> 00:20:38,600 Speaker 2: there have always been times like these. So in fourteen forty, 335 00:20:39,000 --> 00:20:42,080 Speaker 2: when the printing press was invented in Europe, there were 336 00:20:42,119 --> 00:20:44,960 Speaker 2: many thinkers who asserted that this was going to ruin 337 00:20:45,040 --> 00:20:49,240 Speaker 2: the next generation. Why because now the answers were just 338 00:20:49,280 --> 00:20:49,719 Speaker 2: sitting there. 339 00:20:49,800 --> 00:20:52,440 Speaker 1: They were right there. You don't have to remember much 340 00:20:52,480 --> 00:20:53,040 Speaker 1: of anything. 341 00:20:53,400 --> 00:20:56,639 Speaker 2: You just needed to remember where to get the information, 342 00:20:56,880 --> 00:20:59,040 Speaker 2: and you could pull it right off the shelf. 343 00:20:59,440 --> 00:20:59,919 Speaker 1: A lot of it. 344 00:21:00,080 --> 00:21:03,919 Speaker 2: Educators in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries lamented what was 345 00:21:03,960 --> 00:21:06,600 Speaker 2: going on here. They were certain this was going to 346 00:21:06,640 --> 00:21:10,720 Speaker 2: make everyone intellectually lazy. What they overlooked was the way 347 00:21:10,760 --> 00:21:14,320 Speaker 2: that knowledge would continue to explode and the way that 348 00:21:14,359 --> 00:21:18,240 Speaker 2: society could springboard off the top of this new technology 349 00:21:18,680 --> 00:21:23,160 Speaker 2: of books. Memorizing things was not, in fact the important 350 00:21:23,160 --> 00:21:26,959 Speaker 2: part of education. Instead, it was about storing pointers to 351 00:21:27,040 --> 00:21:32,000 Speaker 2: where the information could be obtained. Twenty five years ago, 352 00:21:32,040 --> 00:21:34,720 Speaker 2: I was having a similar conversation with educators as we 353 00:21:34,880 --> 00:21:39,040 Speaker 2: transitioned into a world of the Internet, and a teacher 354 00:21:39,400 --> 00:21:41,760 Speaker 2: would ask a question and the kids would just go 355 00:21:41,800 --> 00:21:43,919 Speaker 2: home and look up the answer. I don't know if 356 00:21:43,960 --> 00:21:46,960 Speaker 2: you remember those days, but everyone's concern was that it 357 00:21:47,040 --> 00:21:47,680 Speaker 2: was cheating. 358 00:21:48,160 --> 00:21:49,040 Speaker 1: So what happened. 359 00:21:49,520 --> 00:21:52,879 Speaker 2: It's not that students got dumber, It's that educators got smarter. 360 00:21:53,480 --> 00:21:57,840 Speaker 2: We changed our approach to posing the questions to obviate 361 00:21:58,000 --> 00:22:02,480 Speaker 2: copy and paste homework. We just stopped asking simple memorizable facts, 362 00:22:02,480 --> 00:22:05,879 Speaker 2: and we started doing other things like getting students to 363 00:22:05,960 --> 00:22:10,360 Speaker 2: present out loud to the class, or grading each other's 364 00:22:10,400 --> 00:22:14,080 Speaker 2: work what new things did they learn, or getting students 365 00:22:14,119 --> 00:22:18,040 Speaker 2: to grade the quality of information from different websites, and 366 00:22:18,119 --> 00:22:22,720 Speaker 2: generally anything that made the questions an active exploration instead 367 00:22:22,720 --> 00:22:25,840 Speaker 2: of a simple fill in the blank. Well, now we 368 00:22:25,960 --> 00:22:29,159 Speaker 2: are faced with a new challenge from AI, and the 369 00:22:29,240 --> 00:22:32,400 Speaker 2: question is is this the same kind of challenge we've 370 00:22:32,440 --> 00:22:36,439 Speaker 2: always had, or is something different this time, and if so, 371 00:22:37,040 --> 00:22:40,840 Speaker 2: what and how do we as a society best prepare 372 00:22:40,920 --> 00:22:44,720 Speaker 2: ourselves and our students for this future. So let's start 373 00:22:44,760 --> 00:22:47,000 Speaker 2: with a prediction about AI that I heard from Steve 374 00:22:47,080 --> 00:22:50,040 Speaker 2: Jobs in the nineteen nineties. Jobs was giving a talk 375 00:22:50,240 --> 00:22:54,280 Speaker 2: where he imagined that computers could reach this point where 376 00:22:54,280 --> 00:22:57,760 Speaker 2: they would be able to understand everything that the great 377 00:22:57,760 --> 00:23:02,959 Speaker 2: philosopher Aristotle knew and would be able to simulate his mind, 378 00:23:03,480 --> 00:23:06,119 Speaker 2: and you could have a conversation with him. You could 379 00:23:06,400 --> 00:23:10,720 Speaker 2: ask Aristotle anything, just like Alexander the Great did. And 380 00:23:10,760 --> 00:23:13,159 Speaker 2: I have to say, when Steve Jobs talked about this 381 00:23:13,240 --> 00:23:17,080 Speaker 2: in the nineties, it seemed like a full fledged computer 382 00:23:17,200 --> 00:23:18,360 Speaker 2: world fantasy. 383 00:23:18,840 --> 00:23:20,360 Speaker 1: On the AI mountain. 384 00:23:20,440 --> 00:23:22,879 Speaker 2: We hadn't even gotten our boots strapped on at the 385 00:23:22,880 --> 00:23:24,840 Speaker 2: bottom yet, and yet. 386 00:23:24,600 --> 00:23:25,200 Speaker 1: Here we are. 387 00:23:25,280 --> 00:23:29,200 Speaker 2: Now, We're so far up that mountain that now having 388 00:23:29,240 --> 00:23:33,119 Speaker 2: a simulacrum of Aristotle just seems like part of the 389 00:23:33,160 --> 00:23:34,280 Speaker 2: background furniture. 390 00:23:34,440 --> 00:23:36,080 Speaker 1: You can do this with any LM. 391 00:23:36,160 --> 00:23:39,040 Speaker 2: You just feed in all the books by someone and 392 00:23:39,080 --> 00:23:43,160 Speaker 2: then you have a full, rich conversation. Now, why did 393 00:23:43,200 --> 00:23:48,520 Speaker 2: Steve jobs suggestion of having a personalized tutor matter? Well, 394 00:23:48,560 --> 00:23:52,240 Speaker 2: it matters because every classroom goes too fast for half 395 00:23:52,280 --> 00:23:54,639 Speaker 2: the kids and too slow for the other half. So 396 00:23:54,800 --> 00:23:59,880 Speaker 2: a tailored individualized education is a dream that many think 397 00:24:00,160 --> 00:24:02,520 Speaker 2: in the education space have had for a long time, 398 00:24:03,000 --> 00:24:06,679 Speaker 2: having an expert who could teach you with passion and 399 00:24:06,840 --> 00:24:10,600 Speaker 2: patience and in every possible language. That's something that hasn't 400 00:24:10,640 --> 00:24:15,760 Speaker 2: existed before, and now it's here. But here's the question 401 00:24:15,800 --> 00:24:18,840 Speaker 2: I want to pose. If students were able to sit 402 00:24:19,040 --> 00:24:23,160 Speaker 2: and have a conversation with Aristotle, would they or would 403 00:24:23,160 --> 00:24:26,800 Speaker 2: they rather be hanging out with other students and making 404 00:24:27,119 --> 00:24:29,639 Speaker 2: jokes and getting dates and so on. So I asked 405 00:24:29,680 --> 00:24:31,840 Speaker 2: my thirteen year old boy this question of whether he 406 00:24:31,840 --> 00:24:36,000 Speaker 2: would use a digital twin tutor, and he found it 407 00:24:36,359 --> 00:24:39,240 Speaker 2: not that interesting because he was aware that he would 408 00:24:39,280 --> 00:24:42,560 Speaker 2: run out of things to ask pretty quickly, because in fact, 409 00:24:42,840 --> 00:24:45,280 Speaker 2: he wants to be with friends and play video games 410 00:24:45,320 --> 00:24:48,720 Speaker 2: and run around. Also, there's what I call the problem 411 00:24:48,760 --> 00:24:50,719 Speaker 2: of the mismatched internal model. 412 00:24:51,200 --> 00:24:53,280 Speaker 1: A typical student. 413 00:24:53,200 --> 00:24:56,680 Speaker 2: Simply doesn't have in his or her head the same 414 00:24:56,840 --> 00:25:01,560 Speaker 2: questions or concepts that Aristotle had in his head, so 415 00:25:01,840 --> 00:25:04,359 Speaker 2: there's not much of an interface there. They wouldn't think 416 00:25:04,400 --> 00:25:07,920 Speaker 2: to ask him about his notion of four different causes 417 00:25:07,960 --> 00:25:12,520 Speaker 2: that underlie everything, or his distinction between substantial properties and 418 00:25:12,600 --> 00:25:16,800 Speaker 2: accidental properties of objects, or his theories about virtue or 419 00:25:16,880 --> 00:25:20,720 Speaker 2: teleology or the unmoved mover. So if you were a 420 00:25:20,760 --> 00:25:24,600 Speaker 2: student lucky enough to sit down with Aristotle, you just 421 00:25:24,880 --> 00:25:27,400 Speaker 2: might not know what to ask. You're not that likely 422 00:25:27,440 --> 00:25:32,080 Speaker 2: to probe him with really terrific questions. But I think 423 00:25:32,119 --> 00:25:35,320 Speaker 2: the dream of a tutor isn't lost. It simply has 424 00:25:35,400 --> 00:25:38,640 Speaker 2: to be cast correctly. There's a different way to think 425 00:25:38,680 --> 00:25:41,119 Speaker 2: about the concept of tutor, and I think one of 426 00:25:41,119 --> 00:25:43,240 Speaker 2: the best examples of this is coming out of the 427 00:25:43,320 --> 00:25:47,400 Speaker 2: con Academy. It's called con Migo. Con Migo doesn't tell 428 00:25:47,440 --> 00:25:51,160 Speaker 2: you what it knows. Instead, it challenges you to think 429 00:25:51,200 --> 00:25:56,040 Speaker 2: critically and to solve problems without ever giving you direct answers. 430 00:25:56,400 --> 00:25:59,560 Speaker 2: So you can learn algebra or programming or essay writing. 431 00:25:59,600 --> 00:26:04,520 Speaker 2: But the key is that, unlike chatchpt, con migo does 432 00:26:04,560 --> 00:26:07,760 Speaker 2: not tell you the answer. It guides you to find 433 00:26:07,880 --> 00:26:12,960 Speaker 2: the answer yourself, and it does so with limitless patience. 434 00:26:13,600 --> 00:26:15,840 Speaker 2: I won't say more about this now because next week 435 00:26:15,880 --> 00:26:19,800 Speaker 2: we'll have Saul Khn of the con Academy on Intercosmos 436 00:26:19,800 --> 00:26:22,399 Speaker 2: to talk with us about this, how it came about. 437 00:26:22,160 --> 00:26:22,920 Speaker 1: And where it's going. 438 00:26:23,280 --> 00:26:25,000 Speaker 2: But the thing I want us to note for now 439 00:26:25,320 --> 00:26:28,800 Speaker 2: is that this is not a tutor that replaces a teacher, 440 00:26:29,160 --> 00:26:31,760 Speaker 2: but one that works with the teacher, and that leads 441 00:26:31,840 --> 00:26:34,399 Speaker 2: me to the role that AI is going to be 442 00:26:34,600 --> 00:26:38,200 Speaker 2: great at, which is AI as Tha. 443 00:26:38,320 --> 00:26:39,960 Speaker 1: In other words, as a teaching. 444 00:26:39,640 --> 00:26:43,040 Speaker 2: Assistant, AI can do more than just help with the teaching. 445 00:26:43,080 --> 00:26:45,920 Speaker 2: It can also help with the job of teaching. There 446 00:26:45,920 --> 00:26:48,800 Speaker 2: are all kinds of ways that teachers can use AI 447 00:26:49,400 --> 00:26:53,080 Speaker 2: to help with grading, with creating schedules, with tracking attendance 448 00:26:53,480 --> 00:26:57,199 Speaker 2: that gives the teachers more time and energy to spend 449 00:26:57,200 --> 00:27:00,800 Speaker 2: with the students. AI is super helpful a teacher needs 450 00:27:00,840 --> 00:27:04,760 Speaker 2: to write comments to parents on an individual student performance. 451 00:27:05,080 --> 00:27:07,720 Speaker 2: If it saves the teachers fifty percent of their time, 452 00:27:08,040 --> 00:27:11,000 Speaker 2: that's an incredible win. Or when a teacher has to 453 00:27:11,040 --> 00:27:14,320 Speaker 2: make multiple versions of the same test because kids are 454 00:27:14,320 --> 00:27:19,119 Speaker 2: going off to debate tournaments, or writing teacher letters of recommendation. 455 00:27:19,359 --> 00:27:22,320 Speaker 2: All these are things that AI helps with to reduce 456 00:27:22,560 --> 00:27:26,040 Speaker 2: the burden on educators. And the effect of all these 457 00:27:26,080 --> 00:27:30,040 Speaker 2: efficiency gains is that it gives the teachers more time 458 00:27:30,480 --> 00:27:34,840 Speaker 2: to have real human relationships with the students, and AI 459 00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:39,119 Speaker 2: is also going to improve the structure of teaching. A 460 00:27:39,160 --> 00:27:42,440 Speaker 2: lot of researchers feel that the big end of semester 461 00:27:42,640 --> 00:27:46,600 Speaker 2: exam is going to go away in place of AI 462 00:27:46,800 --> 00:27:50,480 Speaker 2: monitoring every problem along the way, so the teacher knows 463 00:27:50,840 --> 00:27:53,840 Speaker 2: exactly how a student is doing on the fly. In 464 00:27:53,920 --> 00:27:58,280 Speaker 2: other words, with the enormous amount of data available to 465 00:27:58,359 --> 00:28:02,159 Speaker 2: collect about learners, I can process and translate that to 466 00:28:02,240 --> 00:28:05,920 Speaker 2: provide useful insights to everybody, to teachers, to students, to parents, 467 00:28:06,320 --> 00:28:09,480 Speaker 2: and it can give in the moment formative feedback to 468 00:28:09,560 --> 00:28:12,840 Speaker 2: the students, so even before they turn things into the teacher, 469 00:28:13,280 --> 00:28:16,800 Speaker 2: the AI can differentiate the learning experience based on that 470 00:28:16,880 --> 00:28:21,000 Speaker 2: student's need, in other words, tailored education. The main thing 471 00:28:21,119 --> 00:28:24,120 Speaker 2: is it can digest all this data on the fly 472 00:28:24,359 --> 00:28:28,160 Speaker 2: and make it understandable to everyone. Okay, so what should 473 00:28:28,160 --> 00:28:30,800 Speaker 2: we do next in our classrooms. Let's return to what 474 00:28:30,840 --> 00:28:34,040 Speaker 2: I said about teachers having to change the way they 475 00:28:34,080 --> 00:28:36,160 Speaker 2: gave assignments when Google appeared. 476 00:28:36,480 --> 00:28:38,560 Speaker 1: What do we do with chat GPT? 477 00:28:39,320 --> 00:28:41,360 Speaker 2: Well, first of all, last week I was giving a 478 00:28:41,400 --> 00:28:44,520 Speaker 2: talk at a different university and I talked with several 479 00:28:44,520 --> 00:28:47,760 Speaker 2: of my colleagues on the faculty there and I asked them, 480 00:28:48,080 --> 00:28:51,320 Speaker 2: how are you changing the way that you do assignments 481 00:28:51,720 --> 00:28:55,560 Speaker 2: to prevent students from using chat GPT, and many of 482 00:28:55,600 --> 00:28:59,240 Speaker 2: them said, well, I changed my assignment up. Instead of 483 00:28:59,360 --> 00:29:01,760 Speaker 2: just asking them to tell me the answer, I told 484 00:29:01,800 --> 00:29:05,680 Speaker 2: the students to do something new, like compare two ideas 485 00:29:06,040 --> 00:29:08,719 Speaker 2: or come up with three different ways of doing something. 486 00:29:09,240 --> 00:29:11,240 Speaker 2: And I said, wait a minute, they could still just 487 00:29:11,320 --> 00:29:14,680 Speaker 2: do that with their favorite LLM right, And the professors 488 00:29:14,720 --> 00:29:17,960 Speaker 2: seemed to have one of two responses. One was, well, 489 00:29:18,360 --> 00:29:21,120 Speaker 2: that would violate the honor code if they were doing that, 490 00:29:21,520 --> 00:29:24,600 Speaker 2: and the other was I'm pretty sure my students are 491 00:29:24,640 --> 00:29:28,320 Speaker 2: not doing that. But the fact is every student is 492 00:29:28,360 --> 00:29:30,920 Speaker 2: doing it. There's no reason for a student not to 493 00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:33,960 Speaker 2: do it. If you are a student and not using 494 00:29:34,320 --> 00:29:38,280 Speaker 2: the available technology while your competition is using it, your 495 00:29:38,360 --> 00:29:57,520 Speaker 2: chances of success are slim. So I think we should 496 00:29:57,560 --> 00:30:02,240 Speaker 2: assume that all students are leveraging this technology. We need 497 00:30:02,280 --> 00:30:05,800 Speaker 2: to work with that reality. But happily, as far as 498 00:30:05,840 --> 00:30:08,760 Speaker 2: things to do, it's not that hard for an educator 499 00:30:08,800 --> 00:30:11,760 Speaker 2: to modify the assignments. I'll give you an example. This 500 00:30:11,800 --> 00:30:14,160 Speaker 2: is what I'm doing in my current class at Stanford. 501 00:30:14,440 --> 00:30:15,600 Speaker 1: We used to have. 502 00:30:15,520 --> 00:30:19,360 Speaker 2: The final assignment as the writing of a twelve page paper. 503 00:30:19,560 --> 00:30:23,120 Speaker 2: Now the students run a science experiment on their fellow 504 00:30:23,160 --> 00:30:25,880 Speaker 2: classmates and they write up the results. Even if they 505 00:30:25,880 --> 00:30:29,040 Speaker 2: get help refining the question that they want to pursue 506 00:30:29,120 --> 00:30:32,920 Speaker 2: from an LLM, that's fine. They're still optimizing the question 507 00:30:33,080 --> 00:30:36,160 Speaker 2: that they want to pursue and designing the experiment, and 508 00:30:36,200 --> 00:30:40,280 Speaker 2: then they're contacting their classmates and running the experiment and 509 00:30:40,400 --> 00:30:43,160 Speaker 2: understanding what goes wrong in real life and how they 510 00:30:43,160 --> 00:30:46,640 Speaker 2: need to communicate, and finally how to analyze data and 511 00:30:46,680 --> 00:30:47,600 Speaker 2: make charts, even. 512 00:30:47,480 --> 00:30:49,600 Speaker 1: If they use GPT for help with that. 513 00:30:50,280 --> 00:30:52,160 Speaker 2: Anyway, it was an easy change for me to go 514 00:30:52,200 --> 00:30:55,320 Speaker 2: from a final paper to a final experiment. And we 515 00:30:55,400 --> 00:30:58,040 Speaker 2: also have quizzes every class where at the end of 516 00:30:58,080 --> 00:31:01,560 Speaker 2: the lecture there are four sessions on a slide and 517 00:31:01,600 --> 00:31:04,880 Speaker 2: the students write down the answers on paper. A lot 518 00:31:04,920 --> 00:31:08,800 Speaker 2: of teachers are successfully moving in these directions. For example, 519 00:31:09,040 --> 00:31:11,680 Speaker 2: many teachers I talk with say they used to give 520 00:31:11,680 --> 00:31:13,760 Speaker 2: a big take home exam at the end of the semester. 521 00:31:14,160 --> 00:31:17,240 Speaker 2: Now they give a bunch of smaller in class quizzes throughout. 522 00:31:17,920 --> 00:31:20,400 Speaker 2: So I just want to emphasize the importance of being 523 00:31:20,520 --> 00:31:23,680 Speaker 2: one hundred percent aware of the tools out there so 524 00:31:23,720 --> 00:31:27,160 Speaker 2: that educators don't have to pretend that our students are 525 00:31:27,160 --> 00:31:30,080 Speaker 2: not using them. And one way that educators can think 526 00:31:30,080 --> 00:31:34,440 Speaker 2: about this is actually giving AI assisted assignments where the 527 00:31:34,440 --> 00:31:37,080 Speaker 2: students are meant to use AI and couldn't complete it 528 00:31:37,080 --> 00:31:40,959 Speaker 2: without it, and then you have oral defenses about what 529 00:31:41,000 --> 00:31:44,360 Speaker 2: the student just learned. So just imagine the difference between 530 00:31:44,360 --> 00:31:48,160 Speaker 2: having a student making a little diorama or whatever I 531 00:31:48,200 --> 00:31:50,840 Speaker 2: did when I was a kid, versus having them build 532 00:31:51,280 --> 00:31:56,200 Speaker 2: an AI enhanced science fiction world where the student works 533 00:31:56,200 --> 00:31:59,080 Speaker 2: with AI to generate details about the new world, including 534 00:31:59,080 --> 00:32:03,440 Speaker 2: the science, the cultures, the creatures, the technology that comes 535 00:32:03,480 --> 00:32:06,040 Speaker 2: out of that, and then you have the student give 536 00:32:06,080 --> 00:32:08,600 Speaker 2: a performance in front of the class. So it's not 537 00:32:08,920 --> 00:32:12,400 Speaker 2: a matter of simply generating it, but refining it and 538 00:32:12,480 --> 00:32:14,920 Speaker 2: knowing it and believing it and being able to be 539 00:32:15,360 --> 00:32:19,080 Speaker 2: quizzed deeply on the fly about it. You can imagine 540 00:32:19,080 --> 00:32:23,840 Speaker 2: these same concepts with AI assisted spoken word performance, where 541 00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:28,440 Speaker 2: in combination with AI, a student might generate richer content 542 00:32:28,840 --> 00:32:33,520 Speaker 2: to produce on the stage or AI designed next decade 543 00:32:33,560 --> 00:32:37,760 Speaker 2: planning from social structures to technology and education. 544 00:32:37,920 --> 00:32:41,640 Speaker 1: And daily life. This is how you give students a great. 545 00:32:41,480 --> 00:32:44,960 Speaker 2: Education because they are learning how to use the tools 546 00:32:45,000 --> 00:32:50,000 Speaker 2: of the day to build something creative and understand it deeply. Okay, 547 00:32:50,040 --> 00:32:52,520 Speaker 2: so this is a direction where things can go. But 548 00:32:52,640 --> 00:32:55,520 Speaker 2: things I think are even more exciting when we look 549 00:32:55,560 --> 00:32:59,200 Speaker 2: out a few years. A colleague of mine, Rich Branyak, 550 00:32:59,480 --> 00:33:03,360 Speaker 2: runs open Stacks, which is a service that provides textbooks 551 00:33:03,640 --> 00:33:06,920 Speaker 2: in eighty five subjects for free. Now I just spoke 552 00:33:06,960 --> 00:33:10,280 Speaker 2: with him, and he's put years into this project, but 553 00:33:10,360 --> 00:33:14,440 Speaker 2: they're no longer certain that textbooks are the optimal way 554 00:33:14,480 --> 00:33:18,480 Speaker 2: to carry information. So open Stacks is trying out many 555 00:33:18,520 --> 00:33:21,239 Speaker 2: different things. And by the way, we are in a 556 00:33:21,280 --> 00:33:23,880 Speaker 2: long period of discovery here, so some things will work 557 00:33:23,880 --> 00:33:26,480 Speaker 2: well and some things won't. One of the things they're 558 00:33:26,520 --> 00:33:29,480 Speaker 2: trying is this. Imagine that you need the students to 559 00:33:29,560 --> 00:33:32,800 Speaker 2: read chapter seven of this book. You click a button 560 00:33:32,880 --> 00:33:37,000 Speaker 2: to pass chapter seven to Google's Notebook LM, or even 561 00:33:37,040 --> 00:33:41,840 Speaker 2: better now Google Illuminate, which turns the book into a 562 00:33:42,120 --> 00:33:48,680 Speaker 2: podcast with two artificial podcasters having a conversation about the content. 563 00:33:49,160 --> 00:33:50,120 Speaker 1: And you can set. 564 00:33:49,920 --> 00:33:53,080 Speaker 2: All the parameters like which age group this is for, 565 00:33:53,280 --> 00:33:56,240 Speaker 2: and the level of difficulty, and so on. I'll play 566 00:33:56,240 --> 00:33:59,960 Speaker 2: a brief clip for you from one of Google Illuminates podcasts. 567 00:34:00,360 --> 00:34:04,800 Speaker 2: Here it's absorbed Charles Darwin's Origin of Species, and you 568 00:34:04,800 --> 00:34:07,280 Speaker 2: can learn about the book in a conversation. 569 00:34:07,680 --> 00:34:09,279 Speaker 1: Let's talk about it. Absolutely. 570 00:34:10,160 --> 00:34:13,520 Speaker 3: This is a classic foundational work in the field of 571 00:34:13,600 --> 00:34:17,680 Speaker 3: evolutionary biology. It's amazing to think that it was published 572 00:34:17,840 --> 00:34:19,759 Speaker 3: way back in eighteen fifty nine. 573 00:34:20,000 --> 00:34:21,759 Speaker 1: Eighteen fifty nine, that's quite a while ago. Can you 574 00:34:21,760 --> 00:34:24,080 Speaker 1: tell us a bit about what makes this work so important? 575 00:34:24,520 --> 00:34:28,840 Speaker 3: You bet, Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection was 576 00:34:28,880 --> 00:34:30,120 Speaker 3: a total game changer. 577 00:34:30,640 --> 00:34:32,360 Speaker 2: Now I'm only playing a bit of this, but it 578 00:34:32,400 --> 00:34:35,840 Speaker 2: goes on to mention the key ideas and to break 579 00:34:35,880 --> 00:34:39,640 Speaker 2: those down even further, such that in a short podcast 580 00:34:40,000 --> 00:34:43,680 Speaker 2: you get a really good summary of the key ideas. Now, 581 00:34:43,680 --> 00:34:46,279 Speaker 2: the thing I want to emphasize is that by this 582 00:34:46,520 --> 00:34:50,360 Speaker 2: clever trick of turning it into two people talking, it 583 00:34:50,480 --> 00:34:55,280 Speaker 2: becomes more interesting than a bulleted list of facts about 584 00:34:55,280 --> 00:34:59,640 Speaker 2: the book. Why because it gets closer to a story, 585 00:35:00,080 --> 00:35:02,640 Speaker 2: and we have a story shaped hole in our brain, 586 00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:06,279 Speaker 2: and that's what allows things to go in rather than 587 00:35:06,600 --> 00:35:10,840 Speaker 2: simply bullet points of facts. Now, it's not necessarily easy 588 00:35:10,880 --> 00:35:13,880 Speaker 2: to turn everything into a story. But this technology that 589 00:35:13,920 --> 00:35:17,080 Speaker 2: turns a book into a podcast gets us part way 590 00:35:17,120 --> 00:35:21,040 Speaker 2: there because instead of somebody writing, here's a fact, here's 591 00:35:21,080 --> 00:35:24,160 Speaker 2: a fact, here's a fact, now you have someone saying, wait, 592 00:35:24,280 --> 00:35:26,600 Speaker 2: I'm confused, and the other person says, ah, hang on, 593 00:35:26,719 --> 00:35:29,359 Speaker 2: this is amazing, and the first person says, wow, that 594 00:35:29,440 --> 00:35:33,080 Speaker 2: really blows my mind. And now suddenly you're recruiting parts 595 00:35:33,080 --> 00:35:35,520 Speaker 2: of the brain that we study in a subfield called 596 00:35:35,840 --> 00:35:39,600 Speaker 2: social neuroscience, which is just to say, when other people 597 00:35:39,680 --> 00:35:42,879 Speaker 2: are involved, we care more. And that's a big part 598 00:35:42,880 --> 00:35:46,880 Speaker 2: of why we care about story. So this quick trick 599 00:35:47,040 --> 00:35:51,040 Speaker 2: of converting a chapter into a podcast dialogue with a 600 00:35:51,200 --> 00:35:55,480 Speaker 2: click allows story to be approximated and gets you part 601 00:35:55,520 --> 00:35:59,400 Speaker 2: way there. And it's instant and free. And that's not all. 602 00:35:59,680 --> 00:36:02,920 Speaker 2: If you, as a teacher, want to emphasize some aspect 603 00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:06,080 Speaker 2: of the chapter in particular, you just steer the prompt 604 00:36:06,120 --> 00:36:09,520 Speaker 2: that way. So open Stax is experimenting with saying, here's 605 00:36:09,600 --> 00:36:11,719 Speaker 2: chapter seven of this textbook, but I really want my 606 00:36:11,800 --> 00:36:14,319 Speaker 2: kids to concentrate on this aspect of it and not 607 00:36:14,440 --> 00:36:15,480 Speaker 2: spend much time on. 608 00:36:15,440 --> 00:36:16,320 Speaker 1: This other aspect. 609 00:36:16,840 --> 00:36:19,719 Speaker 2: And even better than that, Open Stax wants to make 610 00:36:19,760 --> 00:36:23,720 Speaker 2: it so the teacher can add his or her own voice, 611 00:36:24,120 --> 00:36:26,400 Speaker 2: so that one of the voices on the podcast is 612 00:36:26,880 --> 00:36:28,280 Speaker 2: the teacher saying the words. 613 00:36:28,360 --> 00:36:29,239 Speaker 1: All of this is. 614 00:36:29,280 --> 00:36:33,239 Speaker 2: Easily done with the current technology, and it allows this 615 00:36:33,480 --> 00:36:37,280 Speaker 2: story shaped hole to be hit. It's not a Kloak 616 00:36:37,280 --> 00:36:39,680 Speaker 2: and Dagger mystery about Darwin, but it's a heck of 617 00:36:39,719 --> 00:36:41,040 Speaker 2: a lot better than. 618 00:36:40,920 --> 00:36:42,840 Speaker 1: Reading a long list of facts. 619 00:36:43,160 --> 00:36:45,560 Speaker 2: All this leads to the big question, which is what 620 00:36:45,640 --> 00:36:49,239 Speaker 2: is it we want our students to learn in school. Well, 621 00:36:49,239 --> 00:36:51,400 Speaker 2: one of the most important aspects of school is this 622 00:36:51,640 --> 00:36:55,200 Speaker 2: social education, learning all about other people and how to 623 00:36:55,280 --> 00:36:58,520 Speaker 2: deal with them, and that's obviously much more than simple 624 00:36:58,600 --> 00:37:03,480 Speaker 2: fact gathering. Beyond this, there are two fundamental things we 625 00:37:03,560 --> 00:37:05,840 Speaker 2: need them to learn and to get there, I'll step 626 00:37:05,880 --> 00:37:08,719 Speaker 2: back to the great German thinker Gerta, who in the 627 00:37:08,760 --> 00:37:14,440 Speaker 2: eighteenth century suggested that children need two things from their parents, 628 00:37:15,160 --> 00:37:20,279 Speaker 2: roots and wings. That is the ability to know what 629 00:37:20,400 --> 00:37:24,600 Speaker 2: has come before them that's the roots, and the courage 630 00:37:24,680 --> 00:37:28,040 Speaker 2: to move into the future and create something new that's 631 00:37:28,120 --> 00:37:30,920 Speaker 2: the wings. So what does this mean in the context 632 00:37:31,000 --> 00:37:34,520 Speaker 2: of our future world? We need to be thinking about 633 00:37:34,560 --> 00:37:37,799 Speaker 2: what this translates into for our students, because lots of 634 00:37:37,920 --> 00:37:42,240 Speaker 2: jobs will get outdated, just as always happens. Think about 635 00:37:42,440 --> 00:37:47,840 Speaker 2: buggy drivers and phonograph makers and telephone operators. There's always 636 00:37:47,880 --> 00:37:52,520 Speaker 2: been no point in teaching towards particular vocations, but that's 637 00:37:52,640 --> 00:37:56,880 Speaker 2: especially true now. In ten years, it is really difficult 638 00:37:56,880 --> 00:38:00,720 Speaker 2: to know what jobs are going to exist. Twenty years 639 00:38:00,719 --> 00:38:05,160 Speaker 2: from now, it's probably impossible. Our students of today are 640 00:38:05,160 --> 00:38:08,640 Speaker 2: going to have job titles we can't even imagine right now, 641 00:38:08,880 --> 00:38:12,520 Speaker 2: and the question is how do we prepare them for it. Well, 642 00:38:12,640 --> 00:38:16,120 Speaker 2: in this context, my interpretation of the Gerta quote about 643 00:38:16,239 --> 00:38:20,480 Speaker 2: roots and wings translates to this, for schools, everything is 644 00:38:20,520 --> 00:38:23,200 Speaker 2: going to change. So the roots we want to teach 645 00:38:23,239 --> 00:38:28,000 Speaker 2: our children that's critical thinking, and the wings we want 646 00:38:28,040 --> 00:38:31,680 Speaker 2: to give them that's creativity. And I'm going to argue that, 647 00:38:31,719 --> 00:38:35,799 Speaker 2: even as everything else changes rapidly around us, these are 648 00:38:35,840 --> 00:38:39,880 Speaker 2: the two finest gifts that we can bequeath to the 649 00:38:39,920 --> 00:38:44,600 Speaker 2: next generation. So let's concentrate on critical thinking first. The 650 00:38:44,719 --> 00:38:47,799 Speaker 2: idea of writing an end of term paper, or memorizing 651 00:38:47,800 --> 00:38:50,160 Speaker 2: a bunch of formulas or dates, all of that is 652 00:38:50,200 --> 00:38:54,719 Speaker 2: becoming less important because AI can take care of that instead, 653 00:38:54,840 --> 00:38:58,399 Speaker 2: the central job for us is to focus on how 654 00:38:58,440 --> 00:39:03,680 Speaker 2: to think, how to critically reason, how to make good decisions. 655 00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:05,480 Speaker 2: And let me tell you what I think is a 656 00:39:05,680 --> 00:39:08,880 Speaker 2: beautiful example of how AI can be leveraged. 657 00:39:08,880 --> 00:39:09,120 Speaker 1: Here. 658 00:39:09,760 --> 00:39:11,520 Speaker 2: One of the things I'm going to discuss with Saul 659 00:39:11,600 --> 00:39:15,160 Speaker 2: Kahan next week is the issue of teaching critical thinking 660 00:39:15,239 --> 00:39:19,279 Speaker 2: by debate. So, without giving that discussion away, I'll just 661 00:39:19,320 --> 00:39:23,720 Speaker 2: say we're all interested in teaching students not to pipe 662 00:39:23,760 --> 00:39:28,400 Speaker 2: off with opinions that they believe are incontrovertible, but instead 663 00:39:28,920 --> 00:39:32,399 Speaker 2: to teach them how to think by being challenged. Now, 664 00:39:32,440 --> 00:39:34,920 Speaker 2: somehow our schools have gotten less good. 665 00:39:34,920 --> 00:39:35,760 Speaker 1: At that training. 666 00:39:36,160 --> 00:39:38,480 Speaker 2: How can we make sure that our students are given 667 00:39:38,600 --> 00:39:42,839 Speaker 2: that challenge, that training such that they're able to understand 668 00:39:42,880 --> 00:39:46,040 Speaker 2: the other side of an argument well enough to steal 669 00:39:46,120 --> 00:39:49,720 Speaker 2: man it. Steel manning is the opposite of straw manning. 670 00:39:49,760 --> 00:39:53,319 Speaker 2: It's where you hear someone else's opposing argument and then 671 00:39:53,360 --> 00:39:56,799 Speaker 2: you try to reproduce it and possibly even strengthen it 672 00:39:57,080 --> 00:40:01,279 Speaker 2: to demonstrate your understanding of it. So, in this way 673 00:40:01,320 --> 00:40:05,240 Speaker 2: of using AI, a student takes a hot button topic 674 00:40:05,800 --> 00:40:10,040 Speaker 2: and debates it with the friendly but firm AI, and 675 00:40:10,080 --> 00:40:13,640 Speaker 2: the student is graded on how well she defended her 676 00:40:13,680 --> 00:40:17,799 Speaker 2: position with logical arguments as well as how well she 677 00:40:17,920 --> 00:40:22,080 Speaker 2: was able to steal man the computer's argument, and then 678 00:40:22,120 --> 00:40:24,600 Speaker 2: the sides are switched. Now, to my mind, this is 679 00:40:24,600 --> 00:40:28,040 Speaker 2: one of the most powerful approaches to how AI can 680 00:40:28,080 --> 00:40:32,200 Speaker 2: be leveraged in leveling up education. A student can get 681 00:40:32,480 --> 00:40:37,799 Speaker 2: the time and patience and practice to meaningfully learn how 682 00:40:37,840 --> 00:40:40,440 Speaker 2: to think this way. As I said, we're going to 683 00:40:40,480 --> 00:40:43,160 Speaker 2: come back to this in more detail next week, and 684 00:40:43,239 --> 00:40:47,040 Speaker 2: now let's turn to creativity in theory. The aim of 685 00:40:47,080 --> 00:40:50,640 Speaker 2: the National curriculum is to prepare children for life, right, 686 00:40:51,040 --> 00:40:54,480 Speaker 2: but many worry that it has drifted into the realm 687 00:40:54,520 --> 00:40:57,439 Speaker 2: of teaching for the next test, and we sometimes miss 688 00:40:57,520 --> 00:41:00,160 Speaker 2: the fact that the content of those tests isn't in 689 00:41:00,239 --> 00:41:04,080 Speaker 2: the right aim, because we're still training kids for what 690 00:41:04,160 --> 00:41:07,000 Speaker 2: was important in the last generation, not the upcoming one. 691 00:41:07,480 --> 00:41:09,520 Speaker 2: And I mentioned a moment ago the issue of jobs 692 00:41:09,560 --> 00:41:12,880 Speaker 2: that won't even exist anymore and the unimagined jobs that 693 00:41:12,920 --> 00:41:16,359 Speaker 2: are coming down the pike. So presumably the important thing 694 00:41:16,920 --> 00:41:21,480 Speaker 2: is not to teach rote knowledge, but instead to teach 695 00:41:21,719 --> 00:41:26,680 Speaker 2: the ability to learn to be cognitively flexible, to be creative. 696 00:41:27,400 --> 00:41:31,880 Speaker 2: And AI is extraordinary at helping with this, students and 697 00:41:31,920 --> 00:41:34,640 Speaker 2: all of us can throw the ball farther every time 698 00:41:35,040 --> 00:41:38,960 Speaker 2: by having a thought partner. Fundamentally, what's happening in the 699 00:41:38,960 --> 00:41:43,600 Speaker 2: brain is that creativity happens because we absorb information from 700 00:41:43,600 --> 00:41:47,280 Speaker 2: the world and then remix it by bending it, by 701 00:41:47,320 --> 00:41:50,600 Speaker 2: breaking it, by blending it. If you're interested in this topic, 702 00:41:50,640 --> 00:41:53,360 Speaker 2: please check out my book The Runaway Species or listen 703 00:41:53,400 --> 00:41:56,200 Speaker 2: to episode fifty eight for more on that. And what 704 00:41:56,280 --> 00:42:00,800 Speaker 2: AI gives is plenty of practice with this bending, breaking 705 00:42:00,800 --> 00:42:04,440 Speaker 2: and blending. It's so good at working with us to 706 00:42:04,600 --> 00:42:08,640 Speaker 2: do these remixes. And if we zoom out to AI 707 00:42:08,760 --> 00:42:12,080 Speaker 2: and our technology more generally, what it is extraordinary at 708 00:42:12,480 --> 00:42:16,960 Speaker 2: is giving us the ability to consume a larger diet, 709 00:42:17,360 --> 00:42:21,880 Speaker 2: which gives us the warehouse of materials that we can remix. 710 00:42:22,320 --> 00:42:25,840 Speaker 2: This is now something that students have the opportunity to 711 00:42:25,920 --> 00:42:29,120 Speaker 2: do at a whole new level, to have an incredibly 712 00:42:29,239 --> 00:42:34,600 Speaker 2: expansive storehouse of knowledge, bigger than any generation before them. 713 00:42:34,960 --> 00:42:37,799 Speaker 2: For many of us, when we were young, we'd get 714 00:42:37,840 --> 00:42:40,680 Speaker 2: our information by going down to the library and pulling 715 00:42:40,680 --> 00:42:42,400 Speaker 2: out the Encyclopedia Britannica. 716 00:42:42,800 --> 00:42:45,160 Speaker 1: But now you can get the entirety. 717 00:42:44,800 --> 00:42:48,719 Speaker 2: Of humankind's knowledge from a rectangle in your pocket. That 718 00:42:48,800 --> 00:42:53,600 Speaker 2: makes an enormous difference. And you had whatever homeroom teacher 719 00:42:53,680 --> 00:42:57,000 Speaker 2: you had in your little town. But now students get 720 00:42:57,000 --> 00:43:02,160 Speaker 2: to absorb a larger world due to technology. Our devices 721 00:43:02,360 --> 00:43:06,640 Speaker 2: have flattened the world and zero the distances. I run 722 00:43:06,680 --> 00:43:09,920 Speaker 2: into kids all the time who say something really smart, 723 00:43:10,000 --> 00:43:10,399 Speaker 2: and I. 724 00:43:10,320 --> 00:43:11,799 Speaker 1: Say, how did you know that? 725 00:43:12,040 --> 00:43:14,040 Speaker 2: And they say, oh, I learned that from a Ted 726 00:43:14,120 --> 00:43:17,120 Speaker 2: talk where you've got somebody giving the best talk of 727 00:43:17,160 --> 00:43:20,719 Speaker 2: their lives in fifteen minutes. To my mind, this is 728 00:43:20,719 --> 00:43:24,080 Speaker 2: one of the most beautiful things about AI and technology 729 00:43:24,120 --> 00:43:28,560 Speaker 2: in our lives. It's about consuming a larger diet. Children 730 00:43:28,680 --> 00:43:32,480 Speaker 2: now have an opportunity which we never had. They can 731 00:43:32,480 --> 00:43:35,000 Speaker 2: build whole new worlds with AI. They can figure out 732 00:43:35,120 --> 00:43:39,120 Speaker 2: how to implement anything not on a year's timescale, but 733 00:43:39,400 --> 00:43:43,200 Speaker 2: in a few dedicated hours. As a result of our 734 00:43:43,239 --> 00:43:47,640 Speaker 2: increasingly large diet, we have become a species with a 735 00:43:47,840 --> 00:43:53,960 Speaker 2: runaway imagination. Our innate cognitive software has produced a society 736 00:43:54,480 --> 00:43:59,880 Speaker 2: with increasingly faster innovation when that feeds upon its latest ideas, 737 00:44:00,200 --> 00:44:03,200 Speaker 2: and our students now are on the steepest part of 738 00:44:03,239 --> 00:44:07,040 Speaker 2: the curve that we've ever had in the history of 739 00:44:07,120 --> 00:44:11,920 Speaker 2: the species. There are now more materials than ever for 740 00:44:12,000 --> 00:44:14,520 Speaker 2: them to absorb and remix. 741 00:44:14,640 --> 00:44:17,200 Speaker 1: And the question for us as educators is. 742 00:44:17,280 --> 00:44:19,960 Speaker 2: How do we meet them there on their terms, with 743 00:44:20,120 --> 00:44:23,000 Speaker 2: current technology and with their method of learning. 744 00:44:23,640 --> 00:44:24,680 Speaker 1: We're entering a. 745 00:44:24,719 --> 00:44:29,440 Speaker 2: New world with AI in scientific discovery, AI and art 746 00:44:29,480 --> 00:44:33,359 Speaker 2: and music, AI and social sciences and engineering and legislation. 747 00:44:33,680 --> 00:44:38,880 Speaker 2: And there are patterns emerging that we can't conceive of 748 00:44:39,320 --> 00:44:42,800 Speaker 2: with our twenty twenty five minds, but will look obvious 749 00:44:42,920 --> 00:44:47,360 Speaker 2: enough in twenty thirty five. So to wrap up this thought, 750 00:44:47,760 --> 00:44:50,799 Speaker 2: few endeavors hold as much power for our students of 751 00:44:50,840 --> 00:44:55,680 Speaker 2: today as critical thinking and creativity. Everything is going to 752 00:44:55,680 --> 00:44:57,799 Speaker 2: look very different from the world we know today. There's 753 00:44:57,840 --> 00:45:01,040 Speaker 2: going to be new medical treatments, fl forms of communication, 754 00:45:01,600 --> 00:45:04,480 Speaker 2: new works of art, and the road to that future 755 00:45:04,520 --> 00:45:07,279 Speaker 2: begins in the classrooms of today. So let's do a 756 00:45:07,280 --> 00:45:10,279 Speaker 2: good job making sure that our students have the tools 757 00:45:10,680 --> 00:45:13,440 Speaker 2: to go out and build the next. 758 00:45:13,200 --> 00:45:14,760 Speaker 1: Generation of our world. 759 00:45:15,080 --> 00:45:17,919 Speaker 2: So please join me for the next episode, Part two, 760 00:45:18,280 --> 00:45:21,719 Speaker 2: where I'll be interviewing Saul Khan, founder of the kN Academy. 761 00:45:22,239 --> 00:45:25,280 Speaker 2: As a preview, he's not opposed to teaching, wrote knowledge, 762 00:45:25,360 --> 00:45:27,440 Speaker 2: and he'll argue why that is to some degree a 763 00:45:27,480 --> 00:45:30,359 Speaker 2: really important thing, and he'll talk about the incredible work 764 00:45:30,400 --> 00:45:33,080 Speaker 2: he's done with the con Academy over the years, and 765 00:45:33,239 --> 00:45:37,399 Speaker 2: also where things are going with our new world of technology. 766 00:45:38,040 --> 00:45:40,920 Speaker 2: So until next week, I'll just end by reminding us 767 00:45:40,960 --> 00:45:44,560 Speaker 2: that very little is going to remain status quo in 768 00:45:44,600 --> 00:45:48,480 Speaker 2: our society. There are many fronts on which we'll watch 769 00:45:48,520 --> 00:45:51,320 Speaker 2: and see what happens, but I suggest the most important 770 00:45:51,320 --> 00:45:54,200 Speaker 2: place for us to take action now is with the 771 00:45:54,360 --> 00:45:58,719 Speaker 2: education of our children. As the slope of change increases, 772 00:45:59,080 --> 00:46:01,719 Speaker 2: we need to keep in how we can make the 773 00:46:01,840 --> 00:46:06,799 Speaker 2: right moves now so that we can successfully bequeath to 774 00:46:06,840 --> 00:46:14,360 Speaker 2: our children roots and wings. Go to Eagleman dot com 775 00:46:14,360 --> 00:46:17,800 Speaker 2: slash podcast for more information and to find further reading. 776 00:46:18,239 --> 00:46:21,759 Speaker 2: Send me an email at podcast at eagleman dot com 777 00:46:21,800 --> 00:46:25,040 Speaker 2: with questions or discussion, and check out and subscribe to 778 00:46:25,080 --> 00:46:28,560 Speaker 2: Inner Cosmos on YouTube for videos of each episode and 779 00:46:28,640 --> 00:46:33,359 Speaker 2: to leave comments until next time. I'm David Eagleman, and 780 00:46:33,440 --> 00:46:35,120 Speaker 2: this is Inner Cosmos.