Far too little is understood about the advances of artificial intelligence (AI) and its implications throughout society. In the education sector, there is much discussion on what AI can do to change the delivery of education, but little is known about how AI is shifting the ground rules as to what students should learn to complement AI capabilities effectively. If public policy wishes to do more than adapting curricula and instructional system post-hoc to every new AI tool that is thrown into the market, it needs to take an active role to anticipate the evolution of AI capabilities.
This report outlines a methodology to do exactly that. This methodology provides a set of indicators along key dimensions of human capabilities that each describes the development of AI towards full human equivalence. These indicators describe: Language; Social interaction; Problem solving; Creativity; Metacognition and critical thinking; Knowledge, learning and memory; Vision; Manipulation; and Robotic intelligence. The indicators are presented in scales of five levels, where the most challenging capabilities for AI systems are found towards the top. Grounded in human psychology, this approach offers a structured and high-level perspective on AI development.
Linking AI capabilities to human capabilities allows policy makers to gauge AI’s potential role in education. For example, to what extent can AI emulate the kinds of social capabilities that are key to the work of teachers, and thus where can AI substitute or complement different tasks of teachers? And what are the implications when AI capabilities increase to the next level?
The indicators will enable ministers to discuss the implications of AI for the future of education – from curriculum design to pedagogy. This will involve how to configure space, time, people, technology and relationships in education in order to create the kind of learning environment that will educate learners for their future, not our past.
Beyond education, the indicators also provide a framework to enable Ministers to discuss the implications of AI for other sectors: employment, civic participation, leisure activities, and everyday life. In all these areas, policy needs to be looking to the future, not to the past.
Andreas Schleicher,
OECD Director for Education and Skills