Education, The Creative Process: Educators, Writers, Artists, Activists Talk Teachers, Schools & Creativity The Creative Process

“I'm inspired by a lot of young people who are in their early twenties. They're very interested in these topics. They love thrifting because it is trendy, cool, and affordable. And it's also really good for the environment. I hope that they continue to fight for what is right. I think that what's needed in today's world is that we do create more equitable models, whether it's in business or elsewhere. And that we do have some kind of respect for the planet because the reality is, if we don't, we're the ones that are going to suffer at the end of the day. It's only going to become harder for us, whether it's getting food to eat, whether it's having an environment that's comfortable and hospitable, whether it's having the supply chains we need for all the products in the world. I hope that there is a business model and a path forward, and I hope they're the trailblazers who sort of make it happen. We need to encourage that. We need to create policies that also allow for some of this stuff to flourish.”

What is regenerative business? How can we create a business mindset that addresses social, economic and environmental issues?
Esha Chhabra has written for national and international publications over the last 15 years, focusing on global development, the environment, and the intersection of business and impact. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Economist, The Guardian, and other publications. She is the author of Working to Restore: Harnessing the Power of Business to Heal the Earth.

“I don't think universities and schools will be replaced by AI systems any more than, say, YouTube has replaced universities. I think there will always be a place for universities. As a professor and educator, I have a lot of these discussions with my colleagues. I would say it is a bit like the difference between trying to learn a language exclusively through Duolingo and actually learning a language through immersion into a linguistic community. Anyone who is serious about learning languages will tell you that nothing will replace actual immersion, and Duolingo does not compare. It could be useful to learn vocabulary, for example, but it will not replace the other important aspects of learning language. Learning in general can be like that. Having actual immersion in an educational context at the university, and interactions with educators, with a teacher, with a professor, this back-and-forth of writing essays, asking questions, receiving feedback, and being guided by an actual human being, I think people will always value that. But that's not to say that AI will not have an important role to play, and I think that educators will need to adapt and perhaps harness some of these tools for good. For example, one thing I've started doing with some of my students when it's appropriate—I did this when I taught the first class on the philosophy of AI at Columbia University—is to have some students actively use language models to generate arguments for and against a particular claim, and then in class assess the strength of these generated arguments and kind of tear them apart together to see whether we can poke holes in them. That's one way to use AI-related technology not as a substitute for critical thinking, but instead precisely as a way to stimulate the student's critical thinking skills, and to make learning interactive in a way that wouldn't be possible without using these tools.”

How can we ensure that AI is aligned with human values? What can AI teach us about human cognition and creativity?

Dr. Raphael Millière is Assistant Professor in Philosophy of AI at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. His research primarily explores the theoretical foundations and inner workings of AI systems based on deep learning, such as large language models. He investigates whether these systems can exhibit human-like cognitive capacities, drawing on theories and methods from cognitive science. He is also interested in how insights from studying AI might shed new light on human cognition. Ultimately, his work aims to advance our understanding of both artificial and natural intelligence.

“I'm so happy for young people because I think the era of having to memorize things is going to go by the wayside. I think we're going to turn into a very creative period where education becomes creative, rather than jumping through the hoops and remembering things. I'm really excited for anybody who's entering there. I was my first generation going to college. There was one that stands out by miles—a teacher I had in elementary school when I was eight. He was from Jamaica and just arrived in England. He was a jazz musician. He would start off the day playing jazz. He taught math as well, but he brought in a technique, which I still use to this day, to multiply numbers together. I've never seen it taught anywhere, it was done in some kind of slanted table. We'd done multiplication the previous year and I couldn't understand it, but he drew these tables and I thought this was just remarkable. That set me off and it showed me there was this interesting thing called jazz, and you don't have to do much to actually change a lot. Passing on some idea that might be unusual, as long as you can back it up, can have a really positive benefit going forward for future generations.”

Neil Johnson is a physics professor at George Washington University. His new initiative in Complexity and Data Science at the Dynamic Online Networks Lab combines cross-disciplinary fundamental research with data science to attack complex real-world problems. His research interests lie in the broad area of Complex Systems and ‘many-body’ out-of-equilibrium systems of collections of objects, ranging from crowds of particles to crowds of people and from environments as distinct as quantum information processing in nanostructures to the online world of collective behavior on social media.