Lee Se-dol, former professional Go player and now a distinguished professor at UNIST, said artificial intelligence presents opportunities for the older generation but poses a crisis for young people.
Lee made the remarks during a lecture titled "Human Competitiveness in the AI Era" at the third CAIO program held at the Federation of Korean Industries building in Yeouido, Seoul, on Sunday, according to the Korea Artificial Intelligence Association on Monday.
"Interaction with AI ultimately begins with creative questions from humans. It is the process of proactively judging the answers AI provides and then communicating with others based on those judgments," he said.
"Unlike the past, AI now creates significant gaps in outcomes. Those who fall behind the AI trend will find it difficult to catch up, accelerating an 'unequal society,'" Lee said.
The professor predicted AI would favor the older generation, which has accumulated experience.
"AI generates explosive synergy when applied to work and experiences one has built up," he said. "For the older generation with experience and know-how, AI becomes a powerful opportunity. In contrast, the younger generation, which must compete with or utilize AI without having accumulated much, finds it not as easy to advance using AI as it sounds."
Lee noted that in his "AI-Powered Board Game Development" course at the university, he asks students to actively use AI to create games, but many end up using AI only passively.
Without the ability to make proactive judgments, relying on AI instead leads to simpler thinking and results that fall short of expectations, he explained.
Lee proposed "proactive creative experience" as a solution. Users need training to create complete outcomes using AI, going beyond simply asking AI for answers.
"In the end, we need to make people actually experience it. I believe we have entered an era where things that could only remain as ideas in the past must now be directly experienced and turned into actual outcomes using AI," he added.
