Empowering Learners for the Age of AI

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Image Credit: Monash University
Media Release

An innovative national conference hosted by Australian universities aims to ignite public conversations about the complexities of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how it can be harnessed for good.

Professor Dragan Gasevic and Dr Roberto Martinez-Maldonado from the Faculty of Information Technology at Monash University, have joined forces with their colleagues from across the country to host the Empowering Learners for the Age of AI virtual conference.

The conference will run from 10-11 December and has been organised together with the University of South Australia, the University of Technology Sydney, the University of Wollongong, the University of Queensland, and the University of Sydney.

With countries around the world allocating billions of dollars to invest in research, enterprise and human capabilities to prepare for AI, students, professionals and citizens need to learn how to interact with AI to better prepare for this emerging reality.

The free, national online conference, features experts in the field of AI, and aims to ignite public conversation on how Australia can equip its citizens to engage productively with societal infrastructure powered by data, analytics and AI.

“This conference is an opportunity for individuals to come together and debate the complexities that an AI future presents. We want this conference to act as a conversation catalyst so that we can build a future community of people that understand how AI will interact with their lives in the future,” said event organiser Professor Gasevic, Director of the Centre for Learning Analytics at Monash University.

Professor George Siemens, Director of the Centre for Change and Complexity in Learning at the University of South Australia, says the conference will encourage individuals to think critically in a future of automation.

“The age of AI will require individuals to be equipped with critical skills that will enable them to be highly adaptive, noble and agile in a fast-changing world. We want this inaugural conference to offer insights and direction as to how we can best prepare today’s learners for a future of automation,” said Professor Siemens.