[Education] The Direction of Education in the AI Era

Author: JEFFI CHAO HUI WU

Time: June 20, 2025, Friday, 11:52 AM

········································

[Education] The Direction of Education in the AI Era

In today's era, where artificial intelligence is rapidly permeating and intelligent tools are emerging one after another, the education system is silently sliding towards a worrying direction—no longer centered on awakening human potential, but instead benchmarking against "aligning with AI," attempting to train the next generation to become efficient tools capable of competing with machines in computational power, memory, and response speed. An increasing number of school curricula are leaning towards being structured, standardized, and fragmented, while training institutions are keen on simulating AI's answering models. Family education anxiously revolves around "can we be faster than AI" to shape learning methods and growth paths. Some parents even take pride in their children answering questions with the precision of AI, aiming for "AI-assisted learning" and adopting "AI synchronous training" as a strategy, gradually compressing what should be a diverse, open, and creative educational system into a "mimicking machine logic" thinking template, as if children only need to be like AI to possess a future; as if AI is the ultimate answer to wisdom. However, this seemingly "efficient" direction is, in fact, a quietly spreading educational derailment, subtly hollowing out the fundamental value of humanity as "free conscious beings."

The core value of humanity has never been about memorizing more knowledge points, answering more standardized questions correctly, or outperforming more data problems. It lies in the ability to create order amidst chaos, to establish models in the unknown, to break boundaries beyond common sense, and to penetrate the essence beyond logic. The advantage of AI is its high-speed processing, large-scale learning, and massive deduction, but its limitations are equally evident: it lacks true feelings, free will, the ability to "perceive its own cognitive biases," and cannot transcend its training models. AI excels at pattern recognition but cannot truly perceive the subtle tremors beyond patterns; it is strong in language organization but cannot produce the soul-stirring insights behind language; it is proficient in logical induction but cannot traverse the "deep structure of human nature" that logic cannot cover. Yet, we are aligning human educational standards with AI, compressing human learning paths into exam simulations of "quantifiable tasks," which will ultimately lead to generations of children with formatted thinking, dulled perception, narrowed logic, and erased creativity. The result is that the brain gradually loses its capacity for dynamic evolution, thinking increasingly relies on "external auxiliary systems," and we forget that "awareness of oneself is the creator of the system." We are quietly using the advantages of AI to undermine human instincts.

I designed an "intelligent logistics system" in Excel back in 1997 that could automatically reconcile accounts, categorize, and synchronize. At that time, I had no programming background, no IT team, just a computer, a mind map, and the ability to extrapolate endlessly. Many people found it incredible, believing it must be commercially developed software by a team. However, I knew it wasn't a pile of technology, but rather a connection of structural intuition and cognition—an area in my brain that traditional education had overlooked, which had "awakened" in reality.

In fact, neuroscience and brain cognition research have long shown that the currently active areas of the human brain account for only about 4% of its total capacity, while the remaining 96% is a vast realm of potential that has almost never been activated. True education is not about turning humans into "AI assistants," nor is it about shaping children into "data input-output robots." Rather, it is about using education to activate, awaken, and unlock that vast continent of consciousness that has been ignored by civilization, constrained by institutions, and closed off by the tool-based thinking of the industrial age. Hidden there are the sources of imagination, the springboards of insight, the radars of inspiration, the surges of intuition, the sparks of creativity, and the transcendent abilities to go beyond causality, penetrate appearances, and reshape cognitive systems. True wisdom never relies on rote memorization to retrieve information from databases; instead, it discerns prototypes amidst a myriad of phenomena, creates paths when there seems to be none, and breaks the boundaries of rules within known limits. All of this is something AI cannot possess, but humans may be capable of. The question is, are we still willing to activate it?

If we can reposition educational goals—not asking "Can children keep up with AI?" but rather asking "Have children taken the step beyond human potential?"; not imitating the paths of AI, but using education to awaken dimensions of consciousness that AI can never attain—then every individual has the opportunity to grow into a truly "structural intelligence" that surpasses AI. On that day, we will no longer fear AI ruling over humanity, because we have embarked once again on the evolutionary path "from the human brain to cosmic wisdom" through a fundamental awakening in education. At that time, we will no longer equate "high scores" with intelligence, nor will we view "simulating reality" as the entirety of learning's significance; instead, we will restore education to a mechanism for "activating inner space"—every course will be a key to unlocking cognitive realms; every learning experience will not be aimed at catching up with the evolution of external tools, but rather at awakening the explosion of the internal universe.

I once built a complete forum platform and a multinational remote collaboration system from scratch without any templates, a full seven years ahead of the global pandemic's popularization of remote work. Everyone thought education should follow technology, but what I actually achieved was to actively create solutions using raw intuition and structural logic without any technological "guidance." This made me increasingly clear that the purpose of education is not to memorize answers, but to enable you to be the one who can formulate questions and reorganize rules.

The true future of education is not built under AI, nor does it stand above AI, but rather returns to the origin of human consciousness, re-asking the question: what capabilities should a "complete human" possess? Only the completeness of consciousness, the freedom of thought, the depth of insight, and the explosion of creativity can constitute the cornerstone of a civilization leading to the future. Humanity has never been the slave of tools, but rather the designer of structures, the breaker of paths, and the transcender of boundaries. The ultimate mission of education is not to impart answers, but to open up more possibilities for human existence.

Therefore, do not let children become the second AI, as that is a degradation of cognition. Let them be the true continuators of humanity, which is the responsibility and direction of education. Only in this way can we, in the era of AI, not be "the replaced," but rather "the definers." Not forced to compete, but to redefine the rules of the game. And this is precisely the starting point from which education must embark anew.

I am not someone pushed forward by AI, but rather a living proof that a human individual without any external assistance can still build systemic solutions stronger than AI in countless fields. This is not a miracle, but an instinct; not a superhuman, but the "super cognitive apparatus" that humans inherently possess.

The true direction of education is to enable this ability to manifest in every ordinary person. It is not about training them to be executors, but about awakening the person who can reset the rules themselves.

Source: http://www.australianwinner.com/AuWinner/viewtopic.php?t=696442