Today We Need Teachers More Than Ever Before | Milan Miljkovic | TEDxUWCDilijan Youth

Quick Overview

Milan Miljkovic argues that despite the rapid advancement of Artificial Intelligence causing fear about obsolescence, educators (teachers and mentors) will become more needed than ever by 2035 because AI will handle rote tasks, creating a demand for human-driven conversations focused on core human values like love, friendship, and community.

Key Points: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly advancing, leading to fears that human roles, especially in education, will become obsolete by 2035. The speaker, Milan Miljkovic, argues the opposite: AI's rise will increase the need for teachers and mentors. AI will take over repetitive tasks like grading, lesson planning, and basic marking, freeing up human educators. The future human role in education centers on fostering deep, meaningful, and slow-paced human conversations about core values such as love, friendship, and community. The speaker references a discussion with a New Yorker journalist, Joshua Rothman, who argued that dialogue is slowly disappearing in online settings. The fundamental need for human-driven discussions on values—rather than just knowledge transfer—is what AI cannot replace, ensuring educators remain essential.

Context: Milan Miljkovic delivers a TEDx talk at TEDxUWCDilijan Youth, focusing on the future role of educators in an increasingly automated world driven by Artificial Intelligence. He contrasts the common fear that AI will replace teachers with his optimistic view that AI will instead create a greater need for human mentorship centered on emotional and ethical development, citing the work of journalist Joshua Rothman regarding the decline of deep dialogue.

Detailed Analysis

Milan Miljkovic begins by addressing the fear that Artificial Intelligence (AI), which he notes is already handling tasks like grading, lesson planning, and basic marking, will render educators obsolete by 2035. He challenges this notion, arguing that the opposite is true: educators will be needed more than ever. The speaker posits that AI will absorb the bulk of administrative and rote tasks currently consuming teachers' and mentors' time. This shift will create an opening for educators to focus on what AI cannot replicate: deep, human-driven conversations. He references an article by Joshua Rothman about the disappearance of deep dialogue in online settings, suggesting that this human element—conversations about core values like love, friendship, and community—is what defines human life and education. Miljkovic concludes that while AI can deliver information, it cannot facilitate the slow-paced, meaningful, and human-centric dialogues necessary for developing these core values, which is why teachers will become indispensable.