The 5th World Intelligence Congress (WIC) was held in Tianjin from May 20 to 23, 2021. During the Congress, a sub-forum on Tech for Good and Artificial Intelligence Education kicked off at Meijiang Convention and Exhibition Center, Tianjin on the 21st. Cao Xiaohong, Vice Mayor of Tianjin, Gong Ke, Chairman of the Forum, President of the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO), and Executive Dean of Chinese Institute of New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Strategies (CINGAI), Yang Qinghai, Deputy Secretary of the Tianjin Municipal Education Commission, and Wang Xinsheng, Vice President of Nankai University, attended the forum. The Forum was chaired by leaders from the School of Artificial Intelligence, Nankai University.

At present, a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation is surging. As a strategic technology leading the new generation of technological revolution and industrial transformation, artificial intelligence is exerting major and far-reaching effects on economic development, social progress, international politics, and economic patterns. For artificial intelligence to better serve human society, we have the responsibility to promote and lead the educational leap in the era of artificial intelligence. In an intelligent society, how to use artificial intelligence and other new technologies to realize intelligent and comprehensive education, and promote the upgrading of educational technology and concepts, has become a common problem facing the international education community. To this end, the 5th World Intelligence Congress organized a sub-forum on technological excellence and AI education, introducing the latest trends in AI development and its extensive application in education.

The six topics discussed at the sub-forum included: the latest trends in AI development and its far-reaching impact on education, AI education policy planning, AI-assisted teaching and teachers, cultivating the values and skills needed for life and work in the AI era, AI providing lifelong learning opportunities for all people and promoting fairness and inclusiveness of AI application in education.

Revolving around the theme of the Forum, the keynote speeches were followed by a roundtable discussion on "Artificial Intelligence and Primary Education", Liu Zhiyi, Director of SenseTime Intelligent Industry Research Institute joined the discussion with Che Haiping, Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer of Digital Transformation at Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Wang Guangming, Director of the Faculty of Education, Tianjin Normal University, Liu Jingtai, Director of the Institute of Robotics & Automatic Information System, Nankai University, Wang Yunhong, Director of the Professional Committee of Artificial Intelligence Popularization Education of China Association of Children’s Science Instructors and Professor at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and Zhang Jingbo, Executive Vice President of Neusoft Digital Economy Research Institute and Technical Director of Neusoft (Beijing) Co., Ltd. The guests exchanged opinions and shared insights on topics such as how can AI improve teaching quality and teachers' abilities, and how AI can promote the fairness of education and lifelong education.

From Liu Zhiyi's perspective, the function of education is to cultivate people's ability to adapt to changes, so that they can seize and leverage various opportunities in life to update, deepen and enrich their knowledge. In the era of smart economy, education cannot meet the endless demand for "knowledge and skills" regarding quantity, because the method of information flow, storage and communication in the new century will continue to iterate and change.

On the one hand, the emergence of new technologies will further widen the gap between countries, regions, and groups. At the beginning of every technical revolution, there will be a social and economic restructuring and the gap between the rich and the poor will be widened. With the popularization of technology, the gap will be gradually bridged. AI technology has brought about a digital divide, and AI education will cross this digital divide, which is also in line with “Tech for Good”. On the other hand, the emergence of AI is changing the way people work and live. This is the most important change after the arrival of the intelligent age. Changes have brought about challenges and risks, and AI education must adapt to this sort of need for lifelong learning.

The rise of a great nation cannot be separated from scientific and technological progress, the progress of science and technology cannot be separated from the cultivation of talents, and the cultivation of talents is a long-term process, starting from primary education. Primary education in the digital age, as represented by artificial intelligence, requires the value of learning based on the integration of economic growth and human progress; the value of learning content that helps students learn how to learn, do business, live together with others and grow; the value of space and time in which life time is learning time and living space is learning space, and the value of the subject of learning wherein everyone is a learner. The core of AI literacy education should be reflected in the four aspects of AI awareness, AI thinking, AI innovation and AI social responsibility.

In terms of practical experience, SenseTime, as a leading global AI software platform company,  believes that AI technology will gradually be integrated into and permeate more industries on the road towards AI education practice, improve the production efficiency of traditional industries, further liberate productivity, and unleash the potential of traditional industries. Through the compilation of a series of textbooks, SenseTime has brought to life the concept of AI awareness cultivation, in depth and step by step; at the same time, using the SenseStudy teaching and experiment platform, SenseTime provides a powerful platform for enriching multi-dimensional knowledge courses. In the design of teaching contents and teaching methods, we have summarized the problem-solving process and methodology of AI, and applied this methodology in solving other problems. From the perspective of social responsibility, SenseTime, by building platforms and ecosystems, embraces students, teachers, schools and other ecosystem partners with an open mind.

From the perspective of industry, education and research, enterprises and universities should assume their respective roles and responsibilities in cultivating talents. Only by complementing each other's strengths rather than replacing each other can they cultivate top talents that meet the needs of industrial development. Universities focus on the in-depth and pragmatic research of scientific research and fundamental theories. Enterprises should have insight into long-term interests, and actively provide platforms and technical support. The two sides should work closely together to break the uncoordinated and imbalanced supply and demand of talents, and cultivate AI talents for the future of China's AI industry. The two sides should empower youth with literacy education in artificial intelligence, so that they can live and work in a more confident and happier manner in the era of artificial intelligence.