If you are a person who has attended one of my presentations over the past decade, you might have heard me deride ‘training’ using language such as ‘we train dogs, but we endeavor to educate humans’. This is perhaps a little harsh but here’s a little background.
Earlier in my career I was employed as a ‘corporate trainer’ for a major truck OEM: My job was to train technicians in diesel engine electronics and rebuild procedures. Although I was initially proud of the role, as we muddled through the early years of vehicle computer control systems, I came to realize that something beyond mere training was needed to develop the diagnostic skillsets required of complex electronic systems. By trial and error, I modified my approach to teaching and learning. The corporate teaching environment was ideal for my personal development because many of my “learners” had years of experience in diagnosing equipment failures that went way beyond the guidance I provided in navigating systems in pristine operating condition. I learned from my ‘students’ as much as they learned from me.
The word education is sourced from the Latin: ‘e’ (to draw-out of) ‘ducare’ (to guide). It underlines that a student plays a role in the learning process that goes beyond being a repository for a structured set of procedures. The definition of education was first abused by the Europeans as the continent launched the industrial revolution more than two centuries ago and compulsory free education became the norm. The motives were not benign. Evolving industries required a literate and numerate workforce to operate the machinery that drove industrial progress. It had no objective other than to enable and monetize industrialization.
Today we have new challenges due to the transformative machine learning we know as artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the enormous potential benefits of AI, the technology has already eliminated some occupations. For example, WayMo autonomous drive systems have already replaced taxi and delivery truck drivers in several of our cities. Currently, to operate in a specific geographic area, WayMo must virtually (and precisely) map every detail of the intended operating landscape, a costly process. This requirement will cease when vehicle-to-infrastructure connectivity is improved, something not anticipated to be a long-term holdback.
For an under-educated workforce with inflexible skillsets, AI should be identified as a threat. To counter this, it would help to abandon the designation of ‘trainer’ and redefine the role of the modern educator as being that of a facilitator and mentor: In other words, go beyond that of being a medium to preach procedure. The economics of corporate accountability to shareholders will mandate the power of machine learning to streamline production and reduce or eliminate labor costs, thus maximizing profits, and this will almost certainly overcome the many potential benefits of AI.
To paraphrase the father of modern machine learning Geoffry Hinton (2024 Nobel prize, physics), it is naive to believe that the benefits of AI will overcome its potential for universal harm due to the technology’s capacity to empower and monetize those that control it.