人工智能时代的知识观审思

Reflections on the view of knowledge in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

当下,新兴信息技术引发了深刻的社会变革,也牵引着人类教育向智慧教育阶段转型和演进。基于人工智能技术的具有深度学习能力的智能机器,丰富了知识的载体与形态,重塑了知识生产与传播的方式,加速并可能彻底改变知识生命周期,或将撼动人类的知识主体地位,知识图景已然发生巨变,倒逼教育教学的深刻变革,对知识观的讨论已经迫在眉睫。文章从内涵、类型等方面勾勒智能时代的新知识观图景。知识从确定性真理走向不确定性“碎片”,从硬知识走向“软”知识、“灰”知识和“暗”知识。知识生产模式也面临从人类到人机群智协同的重大转型。知识表征从人类的认知表征转向智能机器的计算表征。基于智能时代新知识观图景的刻画,文章讨论了智能时代的教学、学习与教师该如何转型以应对变革。

Emerging technologies have led to radical social reforms and also promoted the transition and evolution of education in the direction of smart education. With the emergence of smart machines utilizing artificial intelligence(AI) to conduct deep learning, knowledge medium and modality has been enriched, mode of production and dissemination reshaped, and life cycle accelerated and probably altered. Against this backdrop, humanity may no longer maintain a subject role in the realm of knowledge, a consequence which will radically transform the landscape of knowledge and bring about deep pedagogical reforms.Now is the best of times to discuss what counts as knowledge in the age of AI. This article expounds issues of knowledge in terms of connotation, mode of production, and representation. It is argued that knowledge is changing from ultimate truths to“fragments”of uncertainty, from hard knowledge to“soft”knowledge, and from“grey”knowledge to“dark”knowledge. Human-machine collective intelligence collaboration will replace humanity as knowledge producers. Knowledge will be represented in the form of smart machine computing representation rather than human cognitive representation. The article also discusses learning and teaching in the age of AI and measures for educators to cope with these changes.