Broader Societal Consequences

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In countries where education is difficult for the broad population to obtain, online resources may have a positive effect if the population has the tools to access them. The development of online educational resources should make it easier for foundations that support international educational programs to provide quality education by providing tools and relatively simple amounts of training in their use. For example, large numbers of educational apps, many of them free, are being developed for the iPad. On the negative side, there is already a major trend among students to restrict their social contacts to electronic ones and to spend large amounts of time without social contact, interacting with online programs. If education also occurs more and more online, what effect will the lack of regular, face-to-face contact with peers have on students’ social development? Certain technologies have even been shown to create neurological side effects.^[95] On the other hand, autistic children have benefited from interactions with AI systems already.^[96]

[95] Scientist have studied, for example, the way reliance on GPS may lead to changes in the hypocampus. Kim Tingley, “The Secrets of the Wave Pilots,” The New York Times, March 17, 2016, accessed August 1, 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/20/magazine/the-secrets-of-the-wave-pilots.html.

[96] Judith Newman, “To Siri, With Love: How One Boy With Autism Became BFF With Apple’s Siri,” The New York Times, October 17, 2014, accessed August 1, 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/19/fashion/how-apples-siri-became-one-autistic-boys-bff.html.