At the 2026 Inclusion·Bund Conference, held from September 9 to 12 at the Huangpu Expo Park in Shanghai under the theme "Co-Creating the AI New Economy," Ma Yi, Dean of the School of Computing and Data Science at the University of Hong Kong, shared his insights on AI's role in education.

Dean Ma noted that the purpose of general education courses is to help students build a foundational understanding of AI. At HKU, the school has introduced such general courses for the first time. "As dean, I frequently receive anxious questions from parents: What major should their child choose to avoid being replaced by AI in the future? At its core, this is a question of values," he said.

This year, his courses have begun guiding students to embrace AI, with the technology fully integrated into the curriculum, including his own lectures. The courses are simultaneously delivered to three AI academies in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, with AI agents replacing traditional teaching assistants.

"We established a principle for our students: When you encounter content you don't understand, you can use AI to learn it, but you must never let AI learn on your behalf. During the learning phase, use AI to help you learn faster and better, rather than having AI complete your assignments or conduct your experiments. Once you enter the workforce with the necessary skills, you can then leverage AI to amplify your abilities, making what you already do more efficient and doubling your output," he explained.

He remarked that many students try to use AI to cut corners during their studies, only to realize once they start working that the world has fundamentally changed. In the past, people believed that mastering a limited body of knowledge and a few fixed skills could sustain a lifelong career. That era is now over. If graduates still cling to this mindset, they will naturally feel a sense of panic. This unease stems from the awareness that their skills are highly susceptible to being replaced by AI.

This issue, Dean Ma emphasized, is not only a consideration for students but also a critical matter for everyone, especially educators, to seriously contemplate.