Invited article: Will knowledge building remain uniquely human?

Abstract

If AI is to have a positive transforming effect on education, it will be through the community norms, collective practices, and solidarity that emerge around it. In Knowledge Building, this means fuller realization of such principles as collective responsibility for idea improvement, idea diversity, and knowledge building as a way of life. AI can aid the development of this kind of community by providing powerful tools students themselves can use to strengthen their knowledge-building efforts and eventually by making intelligent machines active collaborators in these efforts. This paper describes advances currently taking place in Knowledge Building technology. Although full collaboration between humans and machines in knowledge creation may be years away, education can start preparing students for their role in it by emphasizing those capabilities that arise from the multifarious personal and social lives they lead.