Artificial intelligence and social action: education and training

One of the central planks of development is the enhancement of people’s potential for creative participation in the development process by enhancing the provision of basic human needs such as education, health and welfare. If AI technology has any relevance to these developmental issues (as like any other technology it should), then it must also concern itself with the knowledge of human needs and the nature of expert knowledge which contributes to the design of relevant technologies. In order for people to participate in the development process, they must have knowledge and skills to affect such a process. The machine-centred approach of current AI technology restricts its application to those problem-solving domains which can be formalized in logical rational rules. This approach thus takes account of non-intuitive knowledge and ignores the intuitive component which is embedded in the personal experience and in the social and cultural traditions of the user. The human-centred approach, on the other hand, is based on the human-machine symbiosis and provides for creative participation of users in the design of “developmental” systems.