China embraces A.I. in the classroom

0:00This message comes from NPR sponsor Subaru. This season, Subaru and its retailers are partnering with Operation Warm and providing children an urgent need with brand new coats, shoes, and socks. Subaru. More than a car company. Learn more at Subaru.com slash help. Today on State of the World, the Chinese schools making artificial intelligence a regular part of the kids' school day.

0:30You're listening to State of the World from NPR, the day's most vital international stories. Up close where they're happening. It's Friday, January 30th. I'm Christine Arismath. In China, like here in the U.S., many people are wary of just how much kids are online and at what age. But for some students in China, learning to use artificial intelligence is now no longer an option. It's mandatory. part of science, art, and other classes. And it's part of a push to prepare kids for an AI-dominated future. NPR's John Ruich takes us to one school in Beijing. 11-year-old Li Zichen shows off a small robot, a wheeled vehicle that he programs with AI and that can lift and move objects.

1:17It's a small project, but he's thinking big about the rovers that China sent to Mars and the moon.

1:27He says the signal delay from Earth makes real-time human control impractical. Rovers need to make choices on their own, which he says is why AI plays a crucial role in China's deep space exploration. For his classmate Song Haoyue, artificial intelligence has been a paintbrush.

1:50She explains how she used AI in a graphic design competition, creating a poster about a mythical bird that tries to fill in the ocean one pebble at a time. It's a parable about perseverance. For these Chinese fifth graders, AI is a tool that can be inspiring and fun and creative. But the adults in the room have a much more specific agenda. Wang Le is their teacher at an elementary school in Beijing's university district. As of this school year, she explains, the Ministry of Education has put in place a new framework. They require integrating AI courses into the information technology curriculum.

2:28In other words, AI is now officially part of the primary and secondary school curriculum in Beijing and several other places. Third graders learn the basics of AI. Fourth graders focus on data and coding. By fifth grade, students are learning about intelligent agents and algorithms. It's about preparing kids for the future, she says. And another thing. It's about enhancing the country's competitiveness by securing a future pool of skilled professionals. Build a strong nation through science and technology, she says. It's a political slogan that encapsulates perhaps the ruling Communist Party's biggest dream.

3:07And AI has been labeled essential for national security and economic competitiveness. The government aims for China to become a global leader in AI within the next four years. But while the state's main goal with the AI in schools policy is developing a pool of talent, parents here, like all parents, are thinking about their children's future. In a tiny sixth floor walk-up apartment, I meet Li Yutian, the father of the boy who's into robotics. He tells me he recently took his son to a Xiaomi factory. Xiaomi makes some of China's best-selling cell phones, gadgets, and cars. And they talked on the way home.

3:47And actually, I said in the future, if you want mechanical-type work, you might, for example, do things like maintenance on robots or program them and guide them, rather than competing with them. He told Zichen he'd need to find work that AI cannot do and differentiate himself to survive. In China, there is debate about some of the same issues Americans are grappling with, things like over-reliance on AI or kids having stunted problem-solving skills. Zicheng's father thinks China's internet restrictions will help stave off some of the worst risks of AI, like kids getting exposed to violent content.

4:21But sheltering kids from this technology is not the way to go.

4:28I've always believed that not embracing it may be the greatest risk of all. Song Zofeng, the father of the girl who made the poster with AI, agrees, for the most part. It depends on the level. For fifth and sixth grades at elementary school level, overexposure is not appropriate. He says 11-year-olds just should not be online much anyway. But Song thinks having AI be a part of the curriculum is a smart move. It's unclear how AI will change society, he says, but it is clear that it will. And if his daughter can be inspired by what she's learning in class, maybe she'll be in a better position to weather the coming change.

5:08John Riewicz, NPR News, Beijing.

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