Robot-Proof: Higher Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (Mit Press)

"Robot-Proof: Higher Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence" was authored by Joseph E. Aoun, Ph.D., the President of Northeastern University. Dr. Aoun has an extensive background in managing higher education and is considered an expert in the field of linguistics. Dr. Aoun discusses various contemporary and pertinent issues related to the role of higher education in creating “creators” and equipping them with lifelong learning skills necessary for leveraging emerging technologies. I will provide an overview of the book. The book acknowledges the challenges, particularly the perception that AI will eventually replace many of the tasks performed by people, rendering numerous gainful employments a thing of the past. This fear is genuine and should be taken into account in the development of public policy. Dr. Aoun cites a 2015 study conducted by Chapman University regarding the worst fears of the US population. The researchers found that the fear of advancing technology, such as robots replacing their jobs, ranked second, even ahead of the fear of "death." This feeling extends beyond the general workforce, as leading experts believed that technology would "undermine the value of human labor" and even warned President Lyndon B. Johnson.However, readers of this book will find that these fears have not been historically justified. According to Dr. Aoun, human beings have adopted innovations and technologies by creating new opportunities. Technological advancement is both inevitable and crucial for a modern society, including providing new options for cancer treatment to physicians. The book also provides historical perspectives on how innovations have not replaced people but have also created new opportunities.Specifically, Dr. Aoun proposes a conceptual model in which AI and other high-tech tools operate in tandem with people, each contributing value to the tasks at hand. It is less about AI taking over jobs and more about the extent to which people can bring creativity and innovation that not only builds upon previous work but also complements the capabilities of AI. Dr. Aoun envisions repurposing the current educational systems to ensure that students are positioned for careers in the 21st century, given the threat of advancing AI. To achieve this, colleges should facilitate students in taking "ownership" of their future and provide students critical and necessary knowledge and skills as well as lifelong learning opportunities. Because technology evolves and adapts to work alongside workers' skills, it is crucial that lifelong learning addresses the challenges posed by emerging technologies as they relate to gainful and fulfilling careers. Even if people are trained for careers in the 21st century, the book acknowledges that the growth of potential workers may outnumber available gainful employment opportunities.The book offers several important and hopeful takeaways. The overarching theme is that technology alone is not sufficient without the creativity of human beings to help address a wide range of concerns, including social and climate challenges. Human creativity is central to providing solutions. In the words of Dr. Aoun, "There is much for all of us to do." The premise of the book is that change is inevitable and requires "a new generation of creators" who will benefit from an adaptive higher education that will position them to meet the workforce demands resulting from emerging innovations and technologies. Creating "creators" rather than workers is what Dr. Aoun calls a "robot-proof higher education," based on the framework of "humanics," which is grounded in the strength and creativity of humans, enabling them to not only understand the content but also create solutions for the myriad needs of the world, from the arts to treating diseases.The framework of humanics has several key characteristics that would strengthen the creative minds of humans, enabling them to become assets that are robot-proof while also leveraging emerging technologies, such as AI, to solve a myriad of world problems. Humanics complements existing capacities that humans possess. Among these are digital, technological, and human literacies, coupled with cognitive capacities such as systems thinking and entrepreneurship to unlock creative minds. Entrepreneurship is seldom on parents' minds or in students' considerations. Parents often want their children to work for good companies after they graduate from college. Rarely do we encourage them to complete college with the goal of becoming creators and entrepreneurs. The last two components of humanics are cultural agility and liberal arts, in the form of building competencies in communication, cross-cultural engagement, and collaboration. The role of higher education is to create new curricula or revise existing instructions to integrate these key skills that the workforce will need to mitigate the shocks from technological advancements. Only when computers outperform human creativity and qualities that are absent in computers will they win, which is unlikely based on historical perspectives.

Education is not only the means but the solution as well. Indeed, automation, AI and ML will make very, if not extremely, difficult to have jobs, work or office hours as we currently have in the near future. The first thing that are going to be automated will be activities, not carreers. But if carreers do not reinvent themselves, they will soon be replaced by machines. Author Joseph E. Aoun offers a personal insight into what universities need to be looking at in order to renew the current curricula. A must read for anyone with curiosity who wants to know how academia should respond to nowadays and current technology trends.

What an amazingly fresh declaration from an academic of such stature. Thank you for candor and amazing insight. We've needed you for some time. It's been a long 101 years since E.P. Cubberly, Professor of Education at Leland Stanford Junior University, wrote*;“Every manufacturing establishment that turns out a standard product or series of products of any kind maintains a force of efficiency experts to study methods of procedure and to measure and test the output of its works. Such men ultimately bring the manufacturing establishment large returns, by introducing improvements in processes and procedure, and in training the workmen to produce a larger and better output. Our schools are, in a sense, factories in which the raw products (children) are to be shaped and fashioned into products to meet the various demands of life. The specifications for manufacturing come from the demands of twentieth-century civilization, and it is the business of the school to build its pupils according to the specification laid down. This demands of tool, specialized machinery, continuous measurement of production to see if it is according to specifications, the elimination of waste in manufacture, and a large variety in the output.”Robot Proof updates this much-beleaguered model in brain-centric fashion. Bravo!

Timely piece that recasts the university as the place whose mission is to provide future skilled workers with training at higher and more sophisticated levels. In the end it is about securing and sustaining jobs. There is no serious consideration given to ethical practices and citizenship. What is presented as "humanics." This is presented as the practical response to the contributions of the social sciences and the humanities. The tragedy is that Joseph Aoun my be on track in terms of the creation of a higher level vocational school that produces workers disguised as a university.

It a great book have basic info

It's a good guide in order to remember where higher education should be looking at, and that in a way soft skills, creativity and critical thinking are not a minor subject in this technology era.

Excellent, informational, and inspiring! If you are involved in the field of higher education or if you are interested in AI and robotics and its impact on future workforce needs, then you will love this book.

Aoun gives a clear prediction of the future, and the only thing certain is change. The job market will most likely change drastically with the rapid onset of mechanization, smarter software, and AI and not even currently high-paying jobs like doctors, lawyers, or financiers are safe. The key for educating the student of the future lies in what he calls cognitive capacities that only humans posses (for now). Great read for anyone employed in higher education.

I liked the objective assessment of the current state of education and what brought us to this state.I enjoyed how clearly the author made his point.

Llego en buenas condiciones

Rise of AI and it’s potential adverse impact is fast rising as a concern, so it is natural that the book title which seems to almost promise solid new ideas on this topic will raise expectations. However what you get is nothing much original but only some repackaging of variety of ideas already in circulation in many books; articles and talks.

Brilhante análise do histórico de grandes disrupções nos sistemas de educação. E ainda mais brilhantes soluções para que os profissionais não fiquem para trás numa economia cada vez mais automatizada.

Es de lo poco que he leído últimamente sobre educación que me ha aportado algo. Vale la pena. Quizás demasiado largo. Creo que el autor argumenta en exceso cada eje de su tesis.