IIT-Mandi head Laxmidhar Behera says AI cannot replace core engineering disciplines

Artificial Intelligence AI is not at a stage where it can really educate students and core engineering discipline cannot be replaced by it according to Indian Institute of Technology IIT Mandi Director Laxmidhar BeheraThe curriculum in the engineering colleges need not be revamped with the advent of AI because the new technologies cannot do research he addedI dont think as of now Artificial Intelligence AI or associated tools has attained a stage where it can educate our students in terms of scientific concepts as well as scientific possibilities I dont think AI has enough of that now because we dont understand our cognitive processesFor example we do not have an answer about why one person can understand math and why another person doesnt So how can we create a system when we very poorly understand our own cognitive processes Behera told PTI in an interviewThe director who is known for his contribution to areas such as intelligent systems and control visionbased robotics warehouse automation and braincomputer interface said ChatGPT is a good innovation but it is as dumb as possibleIt doesnt understand the concept It just gathers the information from voluminous data he saidAmid an on ongoing debate about how education and teaching and learning will have to be reimagined in wake of the AI boom Behera said none of the AI system are innately cognitive rather they depend on their huge architecture and huge database to make things possibleNo we do not have to change our curriculum completely because that will not be prudent on our part Even with AI we will still need good engineers who have good concepts I dont think AI would do all these things Without any concepts of structural engineering how they can the engineers build a bridge or how they can build a 100 storied apartment that is earthquakeresistant AI can probably give a finishing touch you know making things much better this and that But the core engineering discipline cannot be replaced by AI or AI technology So this is a hype I cannot tell you how long this will continue but I am pretty sure every phase has its own end he saidTalking about expansion plans for IIT Mandi Behera said the institute plans to increase the faculty strength to over 300 and student strength to over 5000 in the next five yearsWith the infrastructure firmly in place the institute plans to increase the faculty strength to over 300 and student strength to over 5000 in the next five years Along with this the institute plans to build a hostel for students from Economically Weaker Sections EWS new hostel blocks for 1500 students an academic block and a lecture hall complex in the near future with the financial support of the Ministry of Education through a HEFA loan of Rs 333 croresIn the past year IITMandi has started four new BTech and BS programmes in Material Science and Engineering General Engineering Microelectronics and VLSI Mathematics and Computing and Chemical Sciences We have also started joint degree programmes with other national institutes he saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever