Technological revolutions influence our ways of thinking and living. The evolutionary development in Artificial Intelligence (AI) impels educators to research how to define and nurture human talents. Imagine if AI could accurately answer all the questions on students’ assessments and assignments; would that challenge the exam-orientated and result-focused educational systems? How would educators escape unforeseeable impacts when facing the waves of disruptive technologies? Should humans learn to receive and produce knowledge and treat grades and qualifications as significant measures of successful learning? Why would educators habitually believe the value of education is what knowledge and scores students can get rather than experience the fortune of learning itself? Likewise, the value of life is not solely what material gains humans can accumulate but authentically experience the essence of life itself. Through experiencing life, we learn who we are and the possibilities of what we can be.

 

To face the uncertain future, shall we, as educators and lifelong learners, optimistically bring hope to younger generations by not treating AI as something that can compete against human intelligence and replace human values but by collaborating with AI to foster inclusive learning environments and complementing AI to understand ourselves as humans better? In human history, Siddhartha Gautama Buddha, Confucius, and Lao Tzu revealed the paths of cultivating wisdom and compassion through human experiences with the self, others, and nature. With big data and AI technologies, we would explore new definitions of human talents and knowledge as talents’ roles can be slashable, and knowledge can be shareable; the actualization of common prosperity is possible. Through the open-source resources of deep-learning machines, human learning activities with the facilitation of giant brains should be able to go beyond the boundaries of ages, classes, genders, geographical locations, and races.

 

Suppose knowledge will be free to generate and access in the future. In that case, the pursuit of human wisdom will no longer be limited to what we can know. Wise humans will also be aware of the essence of life, actualize the authentic self to experience love, be able to reflect on what we experience and examine the motive of action. They require nurturing humans’ compassionate hearts to understand our relationships with ourselves, others, and nature and innovative mindsets to challenge the laziness of learning habits and the binary-opposite thinking patterns. Cultivating wisdom and compassion aims to emancipate human autonomy for developing sustainable living conditions. 

 

We are in a great time and position to examine how to experience the transitions from an industrial to an ecological civilization. Would the transitions in different aspects (e.g., educational and cultural) concern the interconnectedness between material and spiritual well-being and respect the harmonious coexistence between living beings and nature? Our earth is beautiful, but people’s lives in societies struggle with greed and injustice. The quest to rejuvenate traditional cultures, philosophies, and values would offer significant sources for us to explore unique meanings of individual paths and humbly work together to create a beautiful world.