“It’s a great season in the Lord’s work,” declared Elder Kim B. Clark, an emeritus General Authority Seventy, to Ensign College students on Tuesday, Oct. 28.
The increasing flow of new technologies today is making it possible for learning and education to flourish, said Elder Clark. “This very day Ensign College reaches thousands of students all over the world with outstanding courses and programs they could never access before.”
Elder Clark — who served as the Church commissioner of education from 2015 to 2019 — assured students that the Lord is moving “with power in His Church” to help them obtain the education He wants them to have.
That education, however, requires deep learning of the whole soul — heart, mind, body and spirit, he explained. While new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, have the power to greatly enhance deep learning, they also pose unique challenges and hazards.
“AI has the potential to be of great benefit in our quest for deep learning, but it also brings with it serious traps, pitfalls and challenges,” said Elder Clark. “Reaping the benefits and avoiding the traps depends on the kind of relationship we establish with the tools of AI.”
Speaking to students gathered in the Conference Center Theater in downtown Salt Lake City, Elder Clark outlined some of those risks and dangers as well as the opportunities associated with its use as it applies specifically to education and deep learning for students.
The elements of deep learning
Elder Clark explained the four elements of deep learning: to know, to feel, to do and to become. These apply to every kind of knowledge, from the spiritual topic of repentance to the earthly study of accounting, he said.
“To know” is to read, study and know the principles. In accounting, for example, an individual will need to know concepts and rules about debits, credits, revenues, costs, cash flows, profits and more.
Some may wonder if there is anything “to feel” in regards to the principles of accounting. “It is here that you must focus on the purpose of accounting, why it exists in the first place,” said Elder Clark. “Accounting is all about integrity, accountability, honesty, truth and good information that helps people make better decisions.”
These are Christlike attributes individuals can feel in their hearts and will motivate them “to do” — or take effective, righteous action by applying the principles. Acting in accordance with these attributes will help individuals “to become” more and more like Christ, said Elder Clark.
Like the Liahona provided guidance and feedback to Lehi and his family in the wilderness, Elder Clark suggested AI technology should be used in the role of a tutor and a coach.
As a tutor, the system could provide personalized support tailored to each student’s learning experience by being designed to assess student progress through diagnostic quizzes and problems or provide Q&A support focused on student learning.
As a coach, the AI system could provide personalized support when practice and learning occurs in the flow of work.
The AI tutor/coach and deep learning
So how do the AI tutor and AI coach apply to the elements of deep learning?
First, interactions with the AI tutor should be limited to the “to know” element of deep learning, Elder Clark explained. “And even here, the AI tutor would have boundaries so that students do the readings, answer the problem sets or assignment questions, do the exercises and write the essays themselves.”
Next, interactions with the AI coach should be limited to the “to do” element of deep learning. “AI coach provides feedback and support but only after the student has taken action to put concepts into practice or demonstrated a skill or met established standards in the flow of work,” said Elder Clark.
These boundaries mean that AI would have limited involvement in the “to feel” and “to become” elements of deep learning.
“Students need to work [’to feel’ and ‘to become’] through prayer, repentance, reflection, worship in the house of the Lord and personal interaction with other human beings, guided, inspired and blessed by Jesus Christ through the Holy Ghost,” he said.
It is critically important to treat AI as a tool, or “a very big machine,” said Elder Clark.
Relying on AI in the “to feel” and “to become” elements risks students coming to rely on AI for spiritual guidance instead of Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ.
Also, giving in to the temptation to let AI do everything will lead to an atrophy of spiritual capacity, said Elder Clark. Students may check off an assignment, or complete a project, “but they will not ‘apply [their] heart to understanding’ (Proverbs 2:2). They will not grow spiritually, and they will not acquire Christlike attributes. They will not learn deeply."
Implications of AI
He shared two implications for those wanting to “learn deeply in the age of AI.”
First, deep learning will always require careful and intentional use of moral agency. Boundaries and limitations can easily be circumnavigated, Elder Clark noted.
“You will need to use the system with righteous principles for righteous purposes. You will need to understand what is at stake, choose to follow the boundaries and limits, and establish your own personal ‘no AI’ zone. Students will need to use their agency to choose to learn deeply,” he said.
Second, AI can help individuals realize the full potential of their gifts and talents faster and more effectively. “It is potentially that wonderful,” said Elder Clark. “However, the availability of AI systems has raised the spiritual stakes in that effort substantially. You will realize your potential only if you increase your spiritual capacity to receive revelation with increased sensitivity to the promptings of the Spirit.”
