Education is dead, says director Ram Gopal Varma

by IANS |

Hyderabad, Nov 13 (IANS) Stating that the Artificial Intelligence (AI) wave will not wait for universities, ministers, or outdated boards to adapt, popular director Ram Gopal Varma has cautioned that it will simply erase what doesn’t evolve and that the first victims will be the students.

Taking to his X timeline to register his thoughts on the advent of AI and its impact on education, director Ram Gopal Varma wrote, "Education is dead. Hey students wake up and CELEBRATE the DEATH of EDUCATION. The explosion of AI will be in direct proportion to a public acknowledgement by all concerned, that our present day education system is dead."

The director then used an example to make his point. He wrote, "Here’s looking at the medical course for an example. A medical student spends five years learning about the body, two years doing post-graduation, and another two or three years in specialization. That’s a decade of memorizing muscles, nerves, organs, their functions and protocols , all to finally diagnose what went wrong in someone’s body to give an appropriate treatment."

"Now, if an AI can read millions of medical cases, scan patient data, and give a diagnosis faster, more accurately, and without bias and also suggest treatment then what’s the point of wasting 10 years on what a machine can do in 10 seconds?," he asked.

The director quoted a leading doctor as saying, "It makes me sad to think of all those present day poor students joining medical colleges, because by the time they finish, there will be nothing left for them to do.”

Stating that this was not dystopia but the truth of today, the director pointed out that this was not only true for students of medicine but for any other course as well.

"In an AI world, sticking to our present education system is not traditional .. it’s both naive and regressive. Ours is a memory-based education system, built for a time when information was scarce. But when you have a device that can give you any information instantly, memorizing is not knowledge, it’s downright stupidity," said the director who said that radical reforms in education was now not a choice but necessary for future survival.

He said, "The AI wave will not wait for universities, ministers, or outdated boards to adapt. It will simply erase what doesn’t evolve and the first victims will be the students."

"I believe that radical reforms in education is not a choice , but it’s for future survival. Otherwise, today’s students will become sacrificial lambs, brutally betrayed by their ignorant parents and even more ignorant policymakers, who are proudly preparing them for jobs that will not exist," he said and came up with a list of suggestions that he thought needed to be implemented swiftly.

"On an immediate basis, we must allow AI tools inside classrooms and exams not as cheats, but as able assistants. Schools should stop pretending to educate. They should only test how intelligently and creatively a student can use AI. The question papers of the future shouldn’t ask what you know , they should ask how fast, how deeply, and how innovatively you can make AI work for you. Because the new genius will not be the one who knows everything, but will be the one who knows how to ask AI the right question," he pointed out.

Addressing students, the director said, "You are living in the eye of an AI apocalypse. You need to realise that the ground beneath your textbooks is melting fast. Your degrees wont be worth the paper they are printed upon. Your professors are teaching you from the ruins of a dead system. If you keep learning the old way, you will just graduate into extinction. AI won’t kill you .. it will simply ignore you. So stop studying for marks and start learning how to use A I. Because very soon, the ones who can’t use A I, will be used up by A I."