The AI Era Is Here. Is Thailand Ready for It? Chula Is All Set for Change and Introduces Generative AI

Chulalongkorn is piloting Generative AI in teaching and learning while recommending national strategies to promote AI literacy and usage to increase work efficiency, as humans must enhance their potential and competency before being replaced by AI. 

Artificial Intelligence or AI is no longer far-fetched, especially when Open AI has launched ChatGPT, an Al Chatbot that can naturally interact with humans.  This exhilarates many people who see the opportunity to take advantage of the technology while sending others into a panic when they consider the potential aspects of human life that AI can disrupt and threaten — as we often hear the question, “Will AI take away human jobs?” or “Is AI better than human?” “Does AI siphon data?” 

No matter how we feel, the undeniable truth is that the world has entered the AI era! Is Thailand ready for it? This question marked the title of one of the two seminars recently held by Chulalongkorn University. The other one was titled “Chula’s Stance in Advanced Education with Generative AI”. The two seminars were aimed at pointing out to people the opportunities in utilizing AI, as well as ideas and guidelines for preparing themselves to live in the AI era. 

AI Literacy — One of the 3 key human competencies of the future 

Professor Emeritus Dr. Worsak Kanok-Nukulchai, Acting Director of the School of Integrated Innovation (SCII), Chulalongkorn University, expressed his views at the seminar “Arrival of AI Era: Is Thailand ready?” that “AI is here to stay.  If we do not develop people to have the knowledge and understanding of AI, we will not keep pace with the world — particularly, in the future, when AI plays an increasing role in industries and the development of devices.  AI will be able to create an enormous body of work without manual labor which may cost people their jobs.” 

Many countries in Asia, such as China, South Korea, Singapore and Japan, have already been prepared for this, while in Thailand, according to Prof. Emer. Dr. Worsak, “It is time for all sectors of Thai society to turn their attention to finding ‘Thailand’s place in the world of the future’ to face the storms of change in the AI world.” 

“AI Literacy will be one of the three fundamental competencies that young people need to learn besides language and computational competencies.” 

Prof. Emer. Dr. Worsak also stated that today, it is an important juncture and a challenging task for Chulalongkorn to develop a curriculum to provide the Thai population with Al Literacy, as well as to cultivate the ecosystem of AI technology education and research. 

AI: Human Replacement or Empowerment? 

Today, we have seen that AI has a wide range of abilities that rivals or surpasses humans in many areas, especially those that require high accuracy. Moreover, AI can constantly improve its intelligence level – thereby leading to a question about career security and human existence. 

Frequently asked questions in discussion and training on AI-related issues include “Will AI take all our jobs?” or “Would people still be useful if a technology like AI could take over multiple roles?” or “What would humans do?” 

Associate Professor Dr. Wirote Aroonmanakun, Director of the Sirindhorn Thai Language Institute, Chulalongkorn University, invites us to look at AI in a positive light as a tool to enhance human potential. 

“The use of Generative AI and ChatGPT has simplified much of our work, like having an assistant to help us get things that we used to do ourselves faster and better.” 

So, what are humans going to do? 

“We may have to expand our own area of responsibility to include other new, and more challenging responsibilities.   We won’t be able to work in the way we work our full-time and daily jobs but must look at work as a learning opportunity. This forces everybody to constantly develop themselves to keep abreast with the changes in technology.” 

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Wirote cited examples of those who work in general administration that may use to be focused on documentation and information generation but should now start to look more towards data analysis.  One should also start to understand the data and use AI to analyze the basic data for presentation to the management, to keep their role and relevance in the organization. 

In line with Assoc. Prof. Dr. Wirote who saw the coming of AI as an opportunity to accelerate human efforts to develop their potential, Assistant Professor Suphawat Hiranthanawiwat of the Faculty of Architecture, Chulalongkorn University, also once wrote in an article, “AI Drawing: A Trend in Art Creation.  Will it Replace or Complement Human Skills and Imagination?”  

“Technology is a tool for self-improvement.  It builds developers’ careers and benefits people starting new professions.  So, no matter what change technology brings, life still belongs to humans. Let us enjoy technology that brings change to life.” 

Chula blazes the trail for education with Generative AI. 

At the 19th “Chula the Impact” seminar on “Chula’s Stance in Advancing Education with Generation AI”, Associate Professor Dr. Proadpran Punyabukkana, Director of the Chula Learning Innovation Center, presented Chula’s progress in pioneering the introduction of generative AI innovations into the teaching process to prepare faculty and students for the changes. 

“Generative AI is an advanced AI technology for content creation, image generation, and coding, that makes human tasks easier. It is a tool that increases opportunities in business, education, and work processes in many professions, such as art,” said Assoc. Prof. Dr. Proadpran.  She also cited the example of the use of ChatGPT in the development of teaching platforms, such as the Chula Lunch Talk which is a knowledge-sharing platform for faculty members and experts to share their knowledge and suggestions on using AI technology in teaching and learning. 

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Proadpran discussed Chula’s guidelines for the use of AI to supervise and ensure the ethical use of technology, and for the benefit of teaching and learning in three main categories as follows: 

1. Instruction and Evaluation 

• Instructors should understand the capabilities and limitations of the selected AI tool and design the instructional and evaluation processes appropriate to that tool. 
• Instructors should specify the scope, guidelines, and rationale of the curriculum for the use of AI tools such as ChatGPT, and Google Bard. 
• If a course allows students to use AI tools, the instructor should adjust the course evaluation method accordingly. The evaluation should not be based mainly on the work that students can use AI tools to answer. 

2. Use of AI Tools 

• AI is simply a tool.  Users are responsible for the accuracy of the information and the resulting pieces of work. 
• If AI tools are used in any work, the reference and scope of the use should be specified. Concealment, and failure to mention AI usage constitute a violation of ethical principles and may be subject to disciplinary actions under relevant regulations or regulations. 

3. Confidentiality and Personal Data 

• Input of confidential information of any agencies or personal information into AI systems without the consent of the parties involved is prohibited. 
   

The future has come faster than we expected. How the world will change in the AI era is challenging, unpredictable, and interesting. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Wirote gave his parting thoughts, “In the future, whether or not AI will replace humans, we are created to constantly learn and adapt. Therefore, those who do not accept change, do not recognize it, and do not understand the use of AI will be the first people who will be affected.”   

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Line