We are living at a time when intelligence is increasingly associated with machines. Artificial intelligence can answer questions, analyse information, generate essays, translate languages, and even imitate aspects of human conversation. Tasks that once required considerable time and effort can now be completed within seconds. This technological progress is remarkable. Yet, as machines become increasingly capable of performing tasks that once depended on human intelligence, perhaps we need to ask a different question: What kind of intelligence should education cultivate in human beings? The question is particularly relevant today as conversations about education are increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence, digitalisation and technological advancement. While technology continues to change the way we teach, learn and communicate, it should not determine the purpose of education.
For many years, education has been closely associated with measurable achievements. Students pursue grades, universities monitor performance indicators, academics count publications, and institutions compete for rankings. These measurements have their place, but education becomes incomplete when success is reduced to numbers alone. Education is more than the transfer of information or preparation for employment. It is also about developing the whole person intellectually, emotionally, socially, and spiritually. Knowledge may prepare someone for a profession, but education should also prepare a person to make decisions, relate to others, and contribute responsibly to society. This becomes even more significant in the age of AI. If a machine can provide information more quickly than a lecturer, then the role of an educator cannot simply be to provide information. If AI can generate a well-structured essay in seconds, then education cannot merely be about producing a well-structured essay.
The value of education must lie somewhere deeper. It lies in helping students understand why knowledge matters, how it should be used, and what consequences may arise from the choices they make. It lies in developing judgment, empathy, responsibility, and the ability to see another human being beyond data and statistics. This is where the distinction between artificial intelligence and authentic human intelligence becomes meaningful. Artificial intelligence is powerful because of its ability to process information, identify patterns, and generate responses. Human intelligence, however, involves dimensions that are much harder to measure, which are empathy, ethics, conscience, wisdom, compassion, and the ability to understand the experiences of others.
A student may be academically excellent, but what does that excellence mean if knowledge is used without responsibility? A person may be technologically competent, but what happens when that competence is separated from compassion? These are questions that technology itself cannot answer for us. As educators, we sometimes become so concerned about keeping up with technological change that we risk allowing technology to determine the direction of education. We learn new platforms, introduce digital tools, and encourage students to develop technological skills. All of this is necessary, but alongside these developments, we should also ask whether our innovations are helping students become thoughtful and responsible human beings.
Technology should support education, not define its purpose. Education today often revolves around the 4Ms (Manpower, Mind, Machine and Market). These dimensions remain important in preparing learners for a rapidly changing world, but they need to be balanced by qualities that place the human being at the centre (Humanity, Heart, High-touch and Humility).
Knowledge, technology and economic progress are important, but they become incomplete when separated from empathy, compassion and responsibility. Preparing someone for a job is important, but preparing someone for a job is not the same as preparing someone for life. A graduate may leave university with technical knowledge and professional qualifications, yet education should ideally leave something more: the ability to think carefully, treat others with dignity, make responsible decisions and understand one’s relationship with society and the environment. Perhaps this is what it means to put the human being back at the centre of education. As a language educator, I find this particularly meaningful. Language learning has never been simply about vocabulary and grammar. When students learn another language, they also encounter another way of seeing the world. They learn how people communicate respect, express gratitude, respond to others, and understand relationships. In Japanese language education, for example, students may know the correct words for a particular situation, but meaningful communication involves more than producing a grammatically correct sentence. Students gradually become aware of context, politeness, consideration for others, and the cultural values behind particular expressions.
AI can translate a sentence. It can suggest vocabulary, explain grammar, and correct mistakes. These capabilities are extremely useful. However, knowing the correct expression and understanding why, when, and to whom it should be used are not necessarily the same thing. There is a human dimension to learning that cannot be reduced to efficiency. The same is true of the relationship between teachers and students. AI may be able to identify a wrong answer instantly, but a teacher sees more than what appears on the page. A teacher notices the student who hesitates before answering, the frustration of not understanding, the loss of confidence after repeated mistakes, and eventually, the sense of achievement when something finally makes sense. These small moments remind us that learning is not only about getting the right answer; it is also about the human experience behind it. Education happens in these moments too. This does not mean that AI should be rejected. Refusing to engage with technology would leave education disconnected from the world in which our students live. The challenge is to benefit from technological advancement without allowing it to weaken the human relationships and values at the heart of learning.
One useful way of thinking about this balance is through the idea of Sejahtera, which views human development holistically. Education should not develop the intellect while neglecting emotional, physical, social, or spiritual well-being. These dimensions are interconnected, and together they contribute to a more balanced understanding of what it means to be educated. This idea becomes especially relevant because technological progress often encourages us to think in terms of speed and efficiency. We ask how quickly something can be completed; how much information can be processed and how productivity can be increased. Human development, however, does not always follow the same logic. Wisdom takes time to develop. Compassion cannot be downloaded. Integrity cannot be generated through a prompt. Understanding another person’s struggles requires more than access to information. These qualities grow through experience, reflection, relationships, and the choices we make. Perhaps this is why the arrival of increasingly sophisticated AI should not make human qualities less important. It should make them more important. The more machines become capable of producing information, the more education must help students decide what to do with that information. The more technology can imitate human communication, the more important genuine human connection becomes. And as algorithms increasingly support our decisions, ethics and judgment become even more necessary.
The future of education, therefore, should not be framed as a competition between humans and machines. The real challenge is to decide what technology should do for us while remaining clear about what should remain within human responsibility. This responsibility is particularly important for universities. Higher education must prepare students to live and work in a technologically advanced world, but it should not lose sight of its deeper purpose. Universities should not merely produce graduates who are employable and technologically competent. They should nurture individuals who can question, reflect, communicate, empathise and act responsibly. This may also require us to reconsider how learning is assessed. If AI can produce an impressive essay within seconds, a polished final product alone may no longer tell us how much a student has actually understood. Greater attention may need to be given to the learning process, such as discussion, reflection, drafts, presentations, questioning, and the ability to explain or defend one’s own ideas. What matters is not simply whether students can produce the right answer, but whether they understand how they arrived at it and what that answer means. AI will continue to develop. What appears extraordinary today may become ordinary tomorrow. The question facing education is therefore not whether technological change can be stopped. It cannot, and there is little reason to stop something that can contribute positively to learning when used wisely.
The more important question is whether our understanding of what it means to be educated will develop alongside it. If education becomes more technologically advanced but less compassionate, have we truly progressed? If students become more efficient at obtaining answers but less willing to question their meaning, what have we gained? If universities produce highly skilled graduates who lack empathy, integrity, and responsibility, can we really consider that educational success? Perhaps the greatest challenge of the AI era is not learning how to make machines more human. It is ensuring that humans do not become more like machines which focused only on speed, productivity, and measurable outcomes.
Technology can make many aspects of education faster, easier, and smarter. But education must continue to nurture the qualities that technology cannot replace: curiosity, empathy, wisdom, integrity, and a sense of responsibility towards others. As machines become smarter, education therefore has an even greater responsibility to become more human. The future of education should not require us to choose between technology and humanity. We need both. The challenge is to ensure that technology remains a tool in human hands, guided by values and used with purpose. In an age increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence, perhaps the most important intelligence we need to protect is the one that reminds us what it means to be human.