I am driven by a deep passion and need to make a difference and leave this world a little better than when I arrived. That's what keeps me going.
- Rick Hansen C.C.,O.B.C.
Yi Wu
Research
In 2009, during my time in London, I discovered a stark contrast in the financial sector's accessibility between the West and China. My interactions with individuals from approximately 40 countries revealed diverse backgrounds landing prestigious banking roles, inspiring me to explore alternative pathways for those who didn’t have chance to related major into China's financial industry. My subsequent research and personal efforts in acquiring American financial certifications like FRM and CFA led to the establishment of a specialized training institution in China, aimed at breaking down educational inequalities and enabling fair employment opportunities.
After this experience, I started to actively engage in a comparative analysis of the pedagogical approaches and educational outcomes in popular employment-related majors at the collegiate level, specifically contrasting Western methodologies against those implemented in China. This exploration seeks to uncover nuanced differences and potential synergies that may inform future educational strategies in these critical fields.
My forthcoming book, Navigating the AI Education Race: Will the US or China Lead the Future?, examines the AI education policies in the United States and China from a comparative national education perspective. Drawing on methodologies of policy analysis and evidence-based problem-solving, I scrutinize the educational inequalities potentially exacerbated by AI. This work is complemented by a series of articles focusing on major global economic entities' AI education policies.
A second initiative emerged between 2014 and 2015, coinciding with the rapid development of self-media and the Internet in China. Recognizing the potential to overcome geographical barriers, I founded an Internet Education Technology Company to significantly reduce students' learning costs. This venture has led to a deeper understanding of regional inequalities, revealing the potential to bridge the gap between different communities by making education more accessible, thereby fostering a more equitable educational landscape.
In 2018, my entrepreneurial and investment experiences in children's AI training and AI education for K12 led me to discover the self-adaptiveness and risks of implementing AI in education. If enterprise-level educational services can mitigate employment and regional inequalities, addressing the inequality induced by AI emerges as a vital challenge. This marks my third professional commitment to fighting educational inequality—a concern that surpasses policy and reaches into the political sphere. These insights culminated in my decision to study at Berkeley's School of Public Policy in 2022, a path driven by a desire to meld technology, policy, and education to mitigate educational inequalities and AI's potential hazards. During my initial year at Berkeley, I engaged in a comprehensive study of seminal works and research papers related to AI ethics. Through active discourse and collaboration with professors and peers, I deepened my comprehension of AI-related risks. This exploration allowed me to elucidate the underlying causes of challenges such as algorithmic discrimination and content moderation biases, stemming from the opaque, black-box nature of contemporary AI systems within the current policy framework.
By the end of 2022, witnessing the burgeoning popularity of ChatGPT across the campuses of the University of California system, I celebrated its introduction as a novel and intuitive generative artificial intelligence product that diverged from all previous AI applications, marking a historic moment in human interaction with new technology. I sought insight and engaged in immersive learning with my esteemed professor of information history Paul Duguid, while also participating in weekly discussions and debates with classmates. By integrating information history with foundational educational theories, I identified the potential opportunities and challenges that generative AI may present for learning and teaching.
I am presently engaged in writing my second book entitled 'Rights Or Weapons? Dealing with Education Inequality in the Age of AI and Digital Economy.' This work diverges from my previous one, which concentrated on international comparative education policy analysis. Instead, the current book emphasizes the multifaceted role of policy within AI education, including risk mitigation and the formulation of informed policy recommendations. My central thesis posits that the pre-existing educational inequalities exposed prior to the digital age must be diligently addressed and contained within the AI era to avert the emergence of unpredictable and uncontrollable risks.
My future research plans are anchored in mixed approach of qualitative and quantitative methods, also exploring to employ explainable AI methodologies to explore causative elements and further developmental paths in teaching methods and policies for the issues uncovered in my previous works. It will continually build on a foundation of interdisciplinary inquiry, drawing insights from the fields of technology, education, and public policy to navigate the complex landscape of AI's role in contemporary education.