AI + The New Human Frontier

CHAPTER 29Shifting from Education to Learning

“Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.”

—Albert Einstein

In an increasingly competitive global marketplace, establishing the basis for a well-trained, future-proofed workforce will be critical. Fundamentally, this begins with challenging—and ultimately changing—the educational system as we know it today. The same educational system has been in place since the time of the industrial economy. It is the same system that was appropriate not just for my baby boomer parents and my grandparents, but also for my great-grandparents.

That system is beyond antiquated and clearly no longer applicable. Plus, it is putting countries and workforces at an inherent disadvantage that will only increase over time. But we are beginning to enter a new era of educational innovation—one that seeks, ultimately, to create thinkers who are better equipped, both intellectually and emotionally, for the world and workplace of the future. It is long overdue that we rethink and reimagine how students are taught and evaluated, particularly because the way we teach children how to research, think, and write is about to be disrupted by AI.

Technology has paved the way for dynamic new interactive tools that will change not just the way we educate but also the way we learn. We can lack imagination by thinking linearly and investing in yesterday (e.g., schools, jobs, health care), or we can harness the power of positive ...