Will artificial intelligence be the end of teachers?

Today (September 5) is the day to celebrate our teachers. India marks this date every year as Teachers’ Day to commemorate the birth anniversary of Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, a renowned academic and philosopher and the country’s second President.

As technology advances, it is also reforming the education systems across the world. Since the advent of artificial intelligence (AI), questions have arisen about the professions it would make redundant. Is teaching one of them?

Let’s take a look.

How AI is transforming education

Artificial intelligence is becoming a part of classrooms globally. Students are increasingly relying on AI chatbots like ChatGPT to better understand topics, for assistance in homework and to prepare for tests and exams.

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But it is not just pupils who are turning to AI for education; teachers are also deploying the tools in the classroom to make lessons more interactive, along with automating routine tasks.

In 2023, the British government analysed how generative AI is being used in education. It found that most teachers were already using AI tools in their jobs or had experimented with them.

Those using AI said it helped them save time, enhanced the quality of their teaching and improved engagement with students.

The technology is being deployed by teachers to plan their lessons, get ideas for

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topics and learning activities based on the syllabus, generate quizzes quickly and research the subjects to better understand them before teaching.

In India, schools are also embracing AI in education. A school in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram introduced a humanoid AI teacher named Iris in March last year.

Schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) offer AI as a subject for high school students.

“AI is helping scale quality tutoring where human teachers are either unavailable or overloaded,” Arpit Gupta, an edtech consultant based in Delhi, told India Today.

Will AI be the end of human tutors?

Besides concerns about students using AI to cheat, there is also anxiety that the technology may disrupt teaching jobs in the future.

Billionaire Bill Gates has reportedly predicted that AI would take the place of teachers and doctors within 10 years. He has also warned that humans won’t be required “for most things”.

Luis von Ahn, the chief executive and a founder of Duolingo, also believes that AI could drastically transform education. “Education is going to change. It’s just a lot more scalable to teach with AI than with teachers,” von Ahn said in a podcast earlier this year, as per Business Insider.

However, he said schools will not cease to exist, but their primary purpose is likely to shift from instruction to childcare and supervision. “That doesn’t mean the teachers are going to go away,” von Ahn said, adding, “You still need people to take care of the students. I also don’t think schools are going to go away because you still need childcare.”

According to a global survey conducted in 2023, about 60 per cent of parents, educators and leaders are either “ambivalent or unwilling to trust AI”. As high as 71 per cent have concerns about its potential risks.

Amid a teacher shortage in the United States and other parts of the world, speculations about AI filling the gap and eventually taking over the job of humans have been doing the rounds.

However, experts are not worried about AI replacing teachers. They say the technology lacks what tutors offer – human connection and empathy to students.

“I don’t think we can put our head in the sand about it,” Indiana’s 2024 Teacher of the Year Eric Jenkins told ABC News. “I don’t think that it’s necessarily going to replace teachers because teachers can offer something that AI can’t, which is a connection, like authentic connection and community.”

He said he believed AI could eventually replace “some parts” of teaching, but as a tool – not a replacement.

“In no universe do I think that AI is going to replace a teacher,” Debbie Critchfield, Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction, was quoted as saying by ABC News.

“The teacher is the most important part and component of the classroom, but [AI] is a very useful tool in helping them provide the best educational environment that they can in the classroom,” she said.

A 2024 UNESCO report stated that “AI is best used to augment, not replace, teachers.”

Meanwhile, concerns about generative AI delivering inaccurate responses, inappropriate content, and bias remain a big problem in education.

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Need for a middle ground

There is a need for responsible use of AI in the education setting.

As per the 2024 World Economic Forum report Shaping the Future of Learning: The Role of AI in Education 4.0, AI could bring real progress to global education systems by improving learning outcomes, empowering teachers and inculcating students with the skills they require for the jobs of tomorrow.

However, for this, the report says, AI has to be deployed equitably and not increase inequality. Given that over 2.6 billion people around the globe do not have even basic internet access, there is a potential that the new tools could expand the existing equity gaps in education.

According to The Forum report, AI innovation should be used with a series of caveats, including that the technology for education is designed in collaboration with teachers, sensitive information is protected, and equity and inclusion are central parts of it.

The report noted that AI is unlikely to impact interpersonal interactions between teachers and students, but can automate routine or repetitive tasks, freeing up more time for tutors.

It also emphasised that AI does not replace teachers has to be ensured by keeping them at the centre of education systems, “aided by AI”.

David Edwards, General Secretary of Education International, a global organisation that represents teachers and education workers, said that the benefits of AI must reach every learner in every school. “Education is the place where we build societies and we build democracy,” he was quoted as saying by The Forum. “[It is] the place where we weave together a narrative about who we are and, more importantly, who we want to be. And the teachers are those who are weaving that.”

“The experience of education is more than just the delivery of content. It’s relational, it’s not transactional. And that’s what I am seeing happening right now with AI.”

As per a Forbes report, teachers will play an important role in ensuring that students are able to use generative AI. With the shift in technology and its impact on education, educators will be responsible for “navigating” these tools that are bringing the change.

With inputs from agencies