Mary Kalantzis and Bill Cope are presenting on AI in education, at the UNESCO Forum this week in León-Guanajuato, Mexico: "Public Policies and Innovation: The Challenges of Science, Technology and Innovation before Industry 4.0, Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence."

Conference Description

Technological change is a current megatrend expressed in a set of revolutions: mainly digital, which is transversal, but also automation, cloud technology, advanced robotics, biotechnology, energy storage and renewable energy, to mention a few. These and other technologies have massive impacts on business models. The so-called Industry 4.0 is a new productive paradigm based on the convergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things, 3D printing and robotics.

The advances in Artificial Intelligence have been spectacular and give rise to developments that we would never have believed possible. Computers and robots are able to learn to improve their work and even to make decisions - which is done, obviously, through an algorithm and without individual conscience. In this context, we cannot stop asking ourselves some questions. Can a machine think? What is AI capable of in the current state of its evolution? Is it possible to collectively define an ethics of artificial intelligence research on a global scale? What is the degree of autonomy of the AI? What happens with the human capacity to make decisions?

More than a fourth industrial revolution, AI is provoking a cultural revolution. This technology is destined, without a doubt, to transform our future, but we still do not know in what way. That is why it fascinates and scares at the same time. Undoubtedly, this new research object is located on the frontier of computing, engineering, philosophy and social sciences.

Some of the applications of AI produce serious questions: data collection that invades private life, algorithms that determine patterns of behavior, facial recognition systems that identify hostile behaviors and that reproduce racial prejudices and cultural stereotypes, military drones and autonomous lethal weapons. The ethical problems of AI are numerous, and will continue to be with the passage of time. While research is progressing rapidly in terms of technical aspects, there is little progress in terms of its ethical side. Many researchers are concerned about this and some countries have begun to think on the issue, but to date there is no legal or regulatory framework to guide future research on a global scale.