On page 58 of The Economist’s December 10th issue, an article on Artificial Intelligence highlights Microsoft’s commitment to fostering a new world. The company’s leader expressed a vision wherein individuals, regardless of their professional background, could seamlessly access to the advice from dozens of experts “for everything they do”.
This visionary concept, though seemingly extraordinary, aligns with discussions from a prior post in January 2020 on the future of universities. In that piece, I delved into an article from the same month featured in Science Business. It forecasted that Artificial Intelligence would soon empower individuals with immediate access to the expertise of the equivalent of a hundred human experts, foreshadowing the direction in which technology was heading. https://pacheco-torgal.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-university-of-future.html
This inevitably poses a significant challenge to the traditional university model geared towards cultivating specialists. The disruption of this model became even more pronounced in 2021, underscored by a statement from an Emeritus British professor. Initially contentious, the statement now appears prescient, particularly in light of Microsoft’s evolving mission. https://pacheco-torgal.blogspot.com/2021/10/universities-should-stop-producing.html
Addressing the crucial inquiry of which specialties merit reconsideration in terms of time and taxpayer funding, one stands out prominently – radiology. The rationale behind this assertion stems from the existence of an infallible AI algorithm. This technology has undergone rigorous testing against the world’s leading radiology experts and, notably, has never erred in a single diagnosis, distinguishing it from its human counterparts. https://pacheco-torgal.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-economistartificial-intelligence.html
PS – Concerning the aforementioned subject check the previous post “Academia at the gates of technological irrelevance?”
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