Key takeaways from the EO-held event under the aegis of WAIC, arguably the largest AI-themed conference of 2020.
On July 10, EO Company, EqualOcean’s parent organization, held the ‘Innovative Talents Cultivation Forum,’ which was a part of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) 2020. (Check out EO Intelligence’s ‘AI Commercialization in China’ report, which was prepared exclusively for this event.)
We invited various speakers from the academic, business and investment circles to share their thoughts on the role of technology in various countries’ education systems and the place of education in modern society.
Below is the nitty-gritty of what our guests were discussing. The quotes are in chronological order.
Zhang Jiawei, co-founder of EO Company, partner of EO Capital: “The gradual penetration of Artificial Intelligence in various fields has brought about the demand for professional improvement. In the future, changes in the education system will be even more apparent. There are some signs of improvement. For one, right now, mathematics and programming-related disciplines in schools are getting highly valued by the society.”
Qian Feng, member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, vice president of East China University of Science and Technology: “At present, China's manufacturing personnel training is facing three key problems: first, the talent training systems are still limited by the frames of traditional disciplines and specialties; second, there are multiple obstacles for cross-disciplinary talent training; third, the overall qualification of educational resources in engineering needs to be strengthened urgently.”
Tang Min, counselor of the State Council: “AI is advancing rapidly in the field of education in China, especially when it comes to basic education. We need to update education management methods, technologically empower teachers and improve the quality of the learning process. At the same time, we must prevent the Matthew effect of AI in education.”
Zhang Hao, chairman of Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Society: “A wisely designed educational system should regard people as the most important element, discovering their potential, awakening their value and inspiring their intelligence. Especially in the era of AI, smart education must meet people's diverse needs and services.”
Hu Jinxin, co-founder and vice chairman of Shadow Creator: “Mixed reality products need to meet the actualization of teaching scenes, from a first-person to a panoramic perspective, to make it easier for students to obtain information; we also need to break through the limitations of teaching space and time by the use of 5G networks to allow students and teachers in different places to enjoy the same content in different teaching environments.”
Shravan Goli, CPO at Coursera: “Online education is helping individuals and organizations learn the skills needed in the future that will allow them to stay competitive during the rise of omnipresent intelligence.”
Dai Juan, general manager of education department at SenseTime: “The main goal of AI education is to cultivate AI literacy. There are four major modules in AI literacy education, including intelligent awareness, intelligent thinking, intelligent innovation and intelligent social responsibility.”
Wu Jiajun, co-founder of Zhangmen: “Subject education is deeply rooted in people's minds; a combination of subject education and quality education will enable quality education to receive more attention from parents.”
Yu Yong, professor of Shanghai Jiaotong University, founder of Boyu: “In essence, AI education is not only important at the knowledge level, but also helps to cultivate thinking ability and improve one’s logic.”
Wang Xujun, vice president at Learnta: “Innovative talents in the future must possess these six abilities: 1. a sense of mission; 2. strong learning abilities; 3. data analysis capabilities; 4. innovative, well-structured minds; 5. multidisciplinary knowledge; 6. humanity and empathy.”