Views on Artificial Intelligence from the Founding President
I think there is only one thing that is worth mentioning in my 2023 recap, which is artificial intelligence.
My youngest one (Rachel) is only five. When she turns 20, which is 15 years from now, she will be living in a world that none of us today can remotely imagine. However, one thing for sure is that artificial intelligence, if not yet directly connected to her brain by then, will at least be integrated in every aspect of her life 15 years from now.
In the past year, I have been constantly discussing with my wife and my kids on the subject of AI, trying to somehow get them ready for this biggest revolution in human history. I have been showing my oldest son, Ryan (who is able to read and reason like an adult), the power of AI, encouraging him to use AI tools like Mid Journey and ChatGPT. Earlier this year, he was able to use Mid Journey to create a cover for his school’s year book. Then, with the help of AI, we worked on a business proposal to convince his debate academy to co-host an international a debate tournament in Jeju. The latest is that Ryan and I are taking an online college course together on prompt engineering.
I am happy that we have made some progress on this matter as a family and more importantly, my wife and I have reached some consensus moving forward.
1. First, we need to make sure that our kids can be highly adaptive to changes. If we cannot imagine what is in front of us during this biggest disruptive revolution in human history, we should at least prepared ourselves to adapt changes.
2. Second, we need to rethink / understand what school means for our kids in this new order. From my observation, I believe Ryan should be able to “finish college”, with the help of the latest AI, in 2 – 3 years from now (he is 12 now). Ryan is only a slightly above average teenager academically, but as he continues to integrate AI in his studies, he should be able to complete an undergraduate degree with ease before he turns 16.
Our schools as well as all supporting systems and policies will not be able to respond swiftly enough to handle the changes brought by AI. Schools used to teach us to turn over, crawl, walk, and run. With AI, anyone who can read and reason properly can immediately fly in the very very near future. One thing for sure is that school will no longer be the place to teach us knowledge. As such, It is up to us now to guide our kids to prepare them for this new world.
3. We need to rethink our role as parents in this revolution. The last thing we want to do is to predict which career will be obsolete and plan our kids future career. We all need to get out of our comfort zone, personally dive into this new technology and show our kids how these products can be applied academically and beyond.
Once our kids are ready, we may consider starting a charity, a business, or at least a project/event with the extensive help of AI and letting our kid onto the driver seat to lead the initiative. Only through these frequent hands on experience solving real life problems can let them thoroughly understand and possess the power of AI.
Lastly, I would like to report that my body weight is 90kg by the end of 2023, which is 2kg more than last year. Lots of work to do this year!
Written by Frank Ng for his Social Media accounts, January 2, 2024.