Experts debate possibilities of AI in education

The Islamabad Literature Festival on Saturday featured a variety of discussions, dialogues, launches and performances including a discourse on the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education on its second day in the federal capital.

The discussion’s title was “AI in Education: Empowering Minds, Shaping the Future of Learning”. The panellists included Shahid Mahmud, Jibran Jamshed, Faisal Bari and Wayne Press. Saquib Ahmed moderated it.

The audience was told that AI had not been a new phenomenon. It had been there since 1956. They were told that Noam Chomsky had used AI back in 1957 for his research.

Jamshed noted that educators often find a significant portion of their time, approximately 40 per cent, consumed by administrative tasks. This time could be better spent in the classroom, fostering a culture of learning and innovation among students. The importance of seamlessly integrating AI technology with teachers was another central point of Jamshed’s address.

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Faisal Bari focused on the positive use of AI in universities emphasising the need for capacity building among faculty to effectively adopt AI. Bari stressed the importance of integrating AI for positive use rather than allowing it to potentially impede educational progress.

In the late afternoon a session, titled “Investing in Human Capital: Tackling Underdevelopment in Pakistan”, was held featuring Asad Sayeed, Akbar Zaidi and Salma Alam. They discussed the low standing of Pakistan in the Human Capital Index and the role of the state in education and health.

Journalism and history

Getting the day to the start was a discussion on the book Pakistan’s Wars: An Alternative History. Moderator Yaqoob Bangash discussed the book with the author Tariq Rehman and Moeed Yusuf, Pakistan’s former national security adviser.

“The cost of war is that no one, who was born after 1995, saw a peaceful day in their lives. These people are our future, and they will be weighed down by this trauma tomorrow when they come forward,” remarked Yusuf.

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The discussion titled Democracy, Bureaucracy, and Judiciary delved into different aspects especially tenets of good governance which are missing in the bureaucracy today. Speakers Hamid Khan, Fauzia M. Sana and Zahid Hussain shared their perspectives about measures which can address these issues by referring to the sociopolitical scenario in the country.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 5^th, 2023.