"Dialogues about the Future": experts at the National Centre RUSSIA discussed the impact of technology on education

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Another meeting within the original project "Dialogues about the Future with Valery Fedorov" took place on 27 August at the National Centre RUSSIA. The main topic of discussion, on the eve of the new academic year, was education in the context of universal digitalisation and preparation for the challenges of a rapidly changing world.

The discussion "The Future of Education: Human Cognitive Abilities in the Context of Innovation" was organised by the National Centre RUSSIA, the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation and VCIOM. The meeting was once again moderated by Valery Fedorov, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Mass Communications at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation and Director General of the Analytical Centre of VCIOM.

Although education is a fairly conservative sphere, the pace of change in it has recently increased sharply, noted Valery Fedorov.

"Russians are interested in our education being the most advanced, modern, and practical. They understand that there is the closest connection between education and the life trajectory a person will follow. Therefore, education must be effective and prepare a person for the life ahead, not for the life that was possible 200 years ago. How can this be done? Ordinary people certainly have no answer to this, while experts’ answers differ widely, since each concept has both advantages and drawbacks. Thus, the search for optimal models continues," said Valery Fedorov.

How does today’s society perceive breakthrough, but sometimes intimidating, innovations in education, and are people ready to entrust artificial intelligence and neurointerfaces with shaping their children’s thinking? According to VCIOM’s research, public trust in artificial intelligence technologies is gradually increasing. At the same time, people fear that the development of AI will lead to a decline in the population’s intellectual capacity, since the more we use technology, the more we offload our brains and the less intelligent, advanced and adaptive we become, noted Valery Fedorov. 

"We can see that trust in artificial intelligence is on the rise. It is still far from universal, and quite a few people — about 38% — do not trust AI, and there are reasons for that. Among the top five concerns is the fear that the more advanced our AI technologies become, the faster this could lead to a decline in human abilities. In other words, there are fears that the so-called Google effect is gradually expanding," warned Valery Fedorov.

Mikhail Lebedev, neurophysiologist, developer of brain–computer interfaces, professor at Moscow State University and Head of the Laboratory of Neural Technologies at the Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, reflected on what will happen to education and cognitive abilities under the influence of neural technologies.

"The forecasts here are bold — we are effectively being promised that any function of our brain could be performed. For example, if we need to quickly learn a subject, we put on electrodes, press a button, or perhaps even go to sleep — and that’s it, the learning has begun. In other words, we are indeed seeing active intervention of modern technologies in our cognitive world," said Mikhail Lebedev.

He drew the participants’ attention to the problem of finding a balance between digital sovereignty and the preservation of cognitive independence, as well as the potential to move in relations with AI from competition to cooperation.

"The question arises of how invasive cognitive intervention will be, and we are already talking about invasive cataclysms. In other words, the prospect of us becoming cognitively different people is quite real. But naturally, we want to preserve what is called cognitive sovereignty, and for this our brain has a resource, since we — unlike the most advanced artificial intelligence — possess consciousness. Perhaps it is from this that we should proceed when solving this problem," suggested Mikhail Lebedev. 

The ethical side of the comprehensive introduction of AI technologies was addressed in detail by Ruslan Yusufov, futurist, researcher and founder of the independent centre for strategic futurology MINDSMITH. He also warned of the danger of widespread use of technologies such as ChatGPT, which could result in people forgetting how to think, while thinking individuals would become, in his words, "rare commodities living in reservations for the sake of preserving humanity."

"I am often reproached for painting the future in overly dark colours. But what I really want is for us, seeing the many possible scenarios of tomorrow that we would rather avoid, to focus on today and make the decisions that can fundamentally change the education system worldwide," urged Ruslan Yusufov.

He also noted that the true value of innovation is defined not by efficiency, but by its ability to serve humanity — including in the sphere of education.

"I believe we should talk less about technology and more about people, placing the human being and the individual at the centre of our focus. Of course, it is much easier to be a technocentric society that tramples on people and fires them in the name of efficiency. But then why was all this created, if not for people? Building a human-centric society is much more difficult, and there are far fewer recipes for doing so. Yet I am confident that Russia is moving precisely in this direction, to the fullest extent possible in today’s environment, reflecting on the human being and his role in the future at every level," concluded Ruslan Yusufov.

The future of education was also at the centre of the discussion. Experts considered how approaches to learning will change under conditions of technological transformation, and who, and in what way, will carry out the educational process in the future.

The special educational project of the National Centre RUSSIA, "Dialogues about the Future with Valery Fedorov", continues the series of events — satellites of the II International Symposium "Inventing the Future" — and is aimed at maintaining public interest in the topic of the future and filling it with relevant content. Within the project, meetings have already been held dedicated to the development of medical technologies, the climate of the future, overcoming digital inequality and other pressing issues.