Is it possible that AI will soon be discovering new drugs that will save millions of lives?
Earlier this month, Sir Demis Hassabis, chief executive and co-founder of the London based artificial intelligence start-up Google DeepMind was awarded this year’s prestigious Nobel prize for Chemistry.
AlphaFold2, the programme Hannabis has led on, has according to Venki Ramakrishnan, the former head of the Royal Society and himself a Nobel laureate, led to “a stunning advance on the protein-folding problem, a 50-year old grand challenge in biology. It has occurred decades before many in the field predicted”.
It now means that as long as researchers know the chemical composition of proteins, they can use AlphaFold2 to predict the structure they are made of, helping to unlock the building blocks of life, and according to the Nobel committee lead to protein creation that can be used as new pharmaceuticals, vaccines, nanomaterials and even create tiny sensors.
AI Scepticism in Education
Whilst the use of big data working alongside AI has huge potential in the science and medical fields, the use of AI in education has been greeted with far greater scepticism. This mistrust has been born out of a real sense that time-pressed students will take easy shortcuts to create work that is not their own, and fundamentally not engage with or enhance their learning and understanding of the subject.
Trying to stop students from giving into the urge to use AI such as ChatGpt is ultimately futile, and misses the point. What AI provides is instant access to a wealth of structured information unimaginable only a few years ago. What we should be doing as educators is helping every student to use AI tools to prepare themselves for enriching, lively and challenging questions to be answered within the classroom. A flipped learning model, where students do their research outside of the classroom, ahead of structured debates in class, has been around for many years, but AI is now making it a pedagogical necessity.
Character Development and Essential Soft Skills
AI can also be the perfect co-pilot for teachers, helping with marking and resource creation, freeing staff up to develop the soft skills in their students that are so important to develop character. More time for students to enjoy superb concerts together, or put on new, exciting and unique art exhibitions locally, or work together on creating a new and innovative drama piece that they have always wanted to explore doing.
Knowing Right from Wrong
Of course AI doesn’t know right from wrong (aside from what it can learn from heuristics); it doesn’t have a belief system. And this is where the School’s pastoral systems, the foundations of which are our fantastic boarding Houses, really can make a difference. Building a sense of community and demonstrating the core school values (and expecting high standards to be upheld time and again) are crucial to help guide every student to navigate not just their school days, but future pathways, most likely top universities and careers beyond RSJ.
As Ken Robinson, the British government advisor said, education is always about relationships and about cultivating the minds and hearts of children. AI can truly help rather than hinder this.
