‘Trying to replace paper and pencil with AI is a dangerous idea,’ says professor at University of Tokyo

Professor Kuniyoshi Sakai is interviewed by Kyunghyang Shinmun at the University of Tokyo on July 19. Reporter Ban Ki-woong

The government will introduce artificial intelligence (AI) digital textbooks to elementary, middle, and high schools nationwide starting next year. The idea is to provide students with personalized learning. South Korea is not the only country seeking to digitize education. Japan has been using digital textbooks for English classes in elementary and middle schools since this year, and plans to expand to other subjects, such as mathematics, next year.

Kuniyoshi Sakai, a professor at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies, is a neuroscientist who opposes the introduction of digital textbooks, warning that digitizing education will reduce children‘s ability to think actively.

When I met him at his laboratory at the Komaba campus of the University of Tokyo on July 19, Sakai pulled out a pencil and notepad before the interview. He cited “paper and pencil” as a key tool for developing memory. “Studying with paper textbooks and taking notes will make students think actively. It reminds them where and what they wrote down and what the teacher was talking about. All of these episodes remain in their brains as clues, which help them remember better," he said.

He was skeptical about the customized learning effect of digital textbooks by level. Students with congenital dyslexia can access high-quality education by using the voice conversion function, but he drew the line, saying that “it is a special case.” He said, “What it is trying to do is to give students who don't understand the material more information in real time to help them understand, but it‘s like, ’Here‘s the answer, so look at this. Just follow it.’”

It is convenient to learn concepts that students do not know by searching and clicking on a digital screen, but it takes away time for them to think for themselves. If they do not think proactively and just get the correct answers, they will be afraid of being wrong. This is why the number of "reviewers" who use search information has increased, but the number of "researchers" who think for themselves has decreased.

Sakai says, “I‘m worried that the trend of searching before thinking is becoming more common. Information updated in real time on social media is distracting and reduces work efficiency. People think they’re being active thanks to their smartphones, but they‘re not doing anything productive.” He emphasized the "power of thinking" by explaining the reason why uncomfortable film cameras can leave better "pictures of works" than digital cameras.

"Let's say we take a picture of a work. There are limited opportunities for a film camera to take pictures. Photographers plan detailed shots because they have to make results within a limited amount of film. However, with a digital camera, they can take an infinite number of shots. They take several shots first and then pick the best one. We only evaluate the photographs of the ‘past,’ but do not think about filming of the ‘future.’ But film cameras are different. We continue to think about future photographs."

Humans use their brains when they are not free and uncomfortable. Sakai argues that we think more with limited resources. “Many students are already unable to write their own sentences because they use AI for writing,” he said, adding, ”If we become more dependent on AI, it will replace human thinking.”

He is also concerned about the increasing exposure of preschoolers to digital content. Even in the early childhood, children need to organize their thoughts and acquire information through their own thinking, but YouTube omits this process and injects information indiscriminately. “The communication that takes place when parents read picture books and children listen to them also becomes an important memory in the brain, which can never be done with YouTube,” Sakai said.

He pointed out that the interests of capital to revitalize the economy through digital means and politicians to introduce new policies as a career achievement have led to a race to the finish line without verifying their effectiveness and side effects. “The current generation was able to compare and choose between digital and analog for themselves, but today‘s kids don’t have a choice,” Sakai said. ”It‘s a dangerous idea to replace paper and pencil, which have proven to be great learning tools throughout history, with untested digital things.”

※This article has undergone review by a professional translator after being translated by an AI translation tool.