Artificial Intelligence (AI) has closely entered our lives, although many of us may not even know what it is. We are exposed to AI every day – while using our mobile phones, shopping online, watching the weather forecast, playing computer games. The list is endless. The role of artificial intelligence in educational processes is constantly growing and its impact on adult education will soon be particularly pronounced. We are publishing a conversation about the presence of AI, awareness, importance thereof, its use in practical life and its rapid development thereof with EDGARS ČERKOVSKIS, director of the master's programme "Circular Economy and Social Entrepreneurship" at the University College of Economics and Culture.

Edgars Čerkovskis, photograph from personal archive. 

The presence of artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly important and topical, but there seems to be no particular definition thereof. A computer system that can perform intelligent tasks associated with the human mind? What do you say?

Indeed, there is no single definition, and we have studied sources in several languages. If we summarise the key words that are present in these definitions, we may state that artificial intelligence is a technology or a system that analyses large amounts of external data and, based on analysis thereof, makes its own decisions regarding action or, in some cases, creates content based on big data, and can work independently of humans. Thus, it selects the best course of action to achieve a specific objective, taking into account the resources available and certain criteria that need to be optimised.

Indeed, in banks it is not someone who writes and sends us individual messages; a virtual adviser is not, say, Jean or Thomas, sitting at a computer and making up the answers to our questions. Therefore, is AI, although invisible, ubiquitous?

We encounter AI when we use, for instance, social networks or smart TV – they analyse our data, usage patterns and create personalised content based on the interpretation of AI data. We accept it because it is stipulated in all terms and conditions, but we can decide whether to use it or not. But if we do not use anything, we are, most probably, excluded from the information space of this world.

Development of AI technologies and, consequently, the ability to use them in practice requires knowledge and minds that can handle it all, and AI is being increasingly integrated into education processes. How do you see this?

If we look at the processes that are going on at school, university, distance learning programmes, in adult education, we come to the conclusion that, in theory, AI can replace almost 90% of school or learning functions. Organisational systems that, for instance, analyse the selection of pupils or students for admission, as well as school management functions. If you need to educate people through distance learning, digital marketing can be used to create personalised ads and invitations exactly for people who are interested in a particular area of learning. AI technologies can shed light on the occupations that are most in demand in the economy now and in the future, and teaching of which should be emphasised at both educational institutions and in the adult education system.

Now, almost 100% of the lecturer’s work can also be replaced. Firstly, AI may create content, which is a highly topical issue. I have tried it myself – Chat GPT software can create learning materials, tests, questionnaires, interviews, assignments of any type that a teacher gives to students.

When it comes to the use of higher-level AI, several programmes can also be used to correct the work of students, pupils or trainees. The programme can be requested to read an essay, a bachelor's or master's thesis, to write a review instead of a tutor or even to give a lecture. All virtual assistants, chatbots or chatterbots – applications that use AI algorithms to communicate with people in easy-to-understand language, answer their questions and provide the information they need – should be integrated into the offices of educational institutions. Virtual assistants can also answer the questions asked to tutors.

The advantage could be in the fact that pupils or students could be provided with a personalised approach through AI intelligent tutoring systems. They would be able to get answers to their questions, which is not always possible in a large classroom where a teacher or a lecturer is alone.

Thus, personalised content is created, it is analysed in the learning environment, and the examinations and tests are also based on how the pupil or student or trainee has been learning. On the positive side, AI assesses the knowledge of a particular student through a series of tasks and, based on the result, automatically generates learning material at a level that the student can understand. The evaluation of students works really fast, even essays and creative work can be marked by AI literally within seconds, while, probably, the biggest advantage is the objectivity due to the lack of the subjective factor of the teacher or lecturer.

All in all, it sounds very promising, but there is one circumstance: to enable the use of AI in a learning environment at all, the trainees need to acquire certain background skills, including computational thinking, problem solving, as well as basic skills in coding and data analysis. What do you think is the real situation in this area?

Many competences are already defined in the National Development Plan, in the School 2030 standard, and they all are appearing in adult lifelong learning programmes. Indeed, consumption of content requires certain competences, creative thinking, digital emotional intelligence, and understanding that you are being judged by a soulless machine and not by a teacher, which could be quite a challenge for several people.

But to create the content and to work with AI software at a higher level, you need to know analytics, maths and programming. At university, there is a subject called logic – logical thinking is required to understand how systems work.

According to my data, programming is taught at schools. But the comparison with the average Estonian and EU data on the use of AI technologies at schools shows that we are lagging behind slightly. The resolution of the issue at the level of content creation and correction of works that I was talking about earlier has not yet been achieved completely. There are still many legal obstacles, for instance, it is not clear who owns the material, when a teacher uses the aforementioned Chat GPT to produce teaching materials in social studies. Is this plagiarism? Can AI be considered an author? Often, when I talk to teachers, when I lecture, I feel that they are quite passive about the use of these technologies, and at the levels we have just talked about, generally nothing happens.

So this is a vision of the future – how far in the future? The coming decades?

I think it is a very near future. The School 2030 standard seems to include AI technology related training in one of the specialised courses. All this could develop very quickly in a short term.

However, according to several information technology (IT) teachers, secondary school pupils, despite being "deeply seated" in their smart phones and laptops since the age of a few years old, are unable to find the information they need online, to summarise and analyse data, or to complete assignments. Why is that?

We are very mistaken in thinking that young people are technologically advanced. Unfortunately, when it comes to doing anything practical with technology, including the use of AI, it turns out that their knowledge is poor. Yes, phones are used from morning to night, but with primitive content like TikTok, and very primitive correspondence with each other. It is the consumption of cheap content that does not build IT skills. Most young people do not know how to use technology at a high level. I have observed this many times: as soon as you have to switch on logical thinking about how to do something, there are problems. Even elementary difficulties, while working with Excel and the like.

And at many rural schools, there is a shortage of IT teachers, who are shuttled from one institution to another... The big IT train seems to be moving past, but we are not keeping up...

Unfortunately, it is like that. This is not to say that education in rural areas is bad everywhere, but exam results show that, in general, regional institutions are weaker.

The so-called "smart" or elite secondary schools and universities are certainly already on the path of this AI leap, but what to do about the rest? There might be three stages in the integration of AI into learning: learning about AI, preparing to work with AI and learning with AI. This brings us to teacher training, and adult education in this area. Teachers need to learn themselves before educating their students. What are the chances? Your university has trained 30,000 teachers in IT over recent years.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, we trained teachers in IT skills with the use of one-day workshops, and then we moved to informal distance learning. The audience is large, and that is how these thousands are built up. We also issue university certificates for completing a one-day course on using AI and virtual reality in learning process. We explain in very simple terms what AI is, how to use it, what virtual reality is. But it was and still is an orientation training, with the emphasis on the teacher's need to have the competence to learn on their own, in order to acquire the information at the required level.

In addition to the already existing workload, when they are already under attack by the new content of School 2030, with the lack of methodological tools, this additional training could feel almost unbearable...

I agree that it will not be easy, and we need to be very careful of how we organise this process at the school level. Recently, I am often invited by schools to talk about AI, and I see that teachers seem to understand the need for it, but are very upset about how much more effort it will take to master the technology.

So when I am invited, I ask – how busy are you, how willing are you to listen about AI at all? Otherwise, they may find that, after listening to all this, they may be in the mood to quit their jobs altogether.

We focus on lifelong learning all the time, making sure that employees acquire IT skills and can successfully build careers at digital companies, but we often forget about teachers. From this educational point of view, more emphasis must be made on high-quality teacher training – distance learning by the best trainers, who can really work with large audiences, so that teachers are not required to travel anywhere. They could go online and receive the knowledge they require at a really high level. I see nothing wrong with, for instance, a maths teacher, who is learning programming as well. It is not easy, of course. But, in terms of lifelong learning, every teacher needs to understand that there is more to learn in this profession than in others, because teachers provide information that is up-to-date. A teacher with outdated knowledge provides outdated information, that is the way it is. Teachers, physicians, engineers, yes, these are avant-garde professions.

The nominees for the Ministry of Education and Science's non-formal education competition “Saules laiva” (Sun Boat) included the IT Education Foundation, which is involved in teaching the Elements of AI course. Around 9,000 students have been trained, the highest number of them in the Baltic States. What type of programme is this?

Elements of AI was developed by the University of Finland, one of the best in Europe, and one leading university in each EU country was selected to translate the materials into the respective language. In Latvia it was RTU – Riga Technical University. It is a distance learning course that covers six topics on AI in six weeks. Once 25 tasks have been completed based on the course, the participant receives a certificate. This course is free for all EU citizens and theoretically prepares them to work with artificial intelligence. It is a high-quality course in plain language, with very good examples and exercises, some of which involve calculations.

We are back to maths again. The laxity of recent years, when pupils could actually avoid learning science and maths at a normal level, is now starting to strike back. Now what?

Mathematics and science, including logic, should be the foundation in every area. Mathematics is first and foremost about developing logical thinking, training the brain, and no industry can do without it. For instance, clothing designers in Latvia now often have great difficulty calculating the area of fabric required to make a garment. For cultural professionals, our university now also has a subject called cultural economics, where I see that students are unable to calculate the cost of an event, the ticket price, the profit margin. However, if we look at the European experience, maths is highly valued at schools, it is a foundation to build on.

How do new technologies enter your university?

We were one of the first in Latvia not to face any problems at all during the pandemic: the day after the emergency was declared, we continued the full cycle training remotely, because we had a lot of experience. We were also once rated by employers as one of the best distance learning institutions. We put a lot of emphasis on virtual reality, we have our own digital lab, which is quite unique in Latvia, where students develop games and apps. Many of our lecturers are already using AI in real practice, and students are doing it too. In cooperation with the Riga Distance Education Secondary School, we have created the first virtual reality economics classroom in Latvia, where students both learn and develop their projects. Of course, we do not have as many opportunities as RTU, where new technologies are used more extensively, but we try to make the most of the available opportunities.

And yet, will the use of artificial intelligence in learning further alienate people? Will collective creative work, for example in group tasks, then be completely absent, as people will be even more immersed in the digital world on their own?

It is a very big challenge for teachers, trainers and for each individual as well. Because any kind of screen work, any kind of technology work, does impair people's communication skills. In the film The Age of Screens, experts from Oxford show that, when people talk on the phone or Zoom, for instance, their brain activity is lower, and the senses which are active when they look into each other's eyes in order to read and evaluate the other person's feelings, are not working. Here it is important for each of us to understand how much we use technology and at what point we give them up. It is harder for young people to do this on their own, therefore the task of the teacher is to create work that tries to move away from technology as much as possible until a symbiosis between the use of technology and physical human values is restored.

At a recent meeting of the university administration, we already started the work on guidelines that would define how to design assignments that prevent students from using AI in assignments that require their own intelligence. Currently, 99% of the classical works assigned by teachers can be performed with the help of AI. That is why we agreed to put a strong emphasis on competences where students' own intellect and knowledge can be employed. The issue of reintroducing oral exams was also raised, which, I think, rank among the most difficult examinations. We are thinking of introducing them next semester, let’s see how it goes. We developed regulations for the presentation of independent work – with restrictions on reading the text, which is generally forbidden, but with the aim of enabling the student to make their point and convince the audience that they know what they are talking about.

Indeed, it is noticeable that many people are no longer able to express themselves freely, to formulate their thoughts concisely, including those in leading positions.

It is true. Nowadays, a lot of young people are very withdrawn, shrinking into themselves, hiding in their hoods, walking around with their phone headsets. That is because they are really used to communicating through technology a lot of the time, and they are afraid of face-to-face communication. It can also cause demographic problems in terms of relationships, building families and so on.

I think we need to look more at the Scandinavians, who are pioneers in education. They believe that contemporary young people are born with a digital gene, therefore, human values should be developed in them first, followed by gradual addition of technology. What is the case in young families now? They give their baby a phone or tablet to make them sit quietly and not disturb their parents. This is absolutely impermissible and teachers should also think more about how to use technology for the promotion of productivity rather than for the relief of their own work.

If someone thinks for us, it is good on the one hand, but on the other hand, it is not, because the human body is designed in a way, where not only our physical mass must be trained, but also our brain; AI places us at a big danger, where we could stop thinking and rely on the available information alone. There is a danger that people could split into two – the smart and capable, who drive science and progress in general, and the rest, dependent on technology and with little basic knowledge in any field. These are challenges of the future which need to be thought about now and dealt with wisely and prudently.