{"id":36261,"date":"2026-06-09T08:00:51","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T00:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/?p=36261"},"modified":"2026-06-08T09:23:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T01:23:22","slug":"humanities-education-in-the-age-of-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/2026\/06\/09\/humanities-education-in-the-age-of-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"Humanities Education in the Age of AI"},"content":{"rendered":"

As artificial intelligence becomes part of everyday work, study, and decision-making, universities are facing a familiar but newly urgent question: what kind of education helps students thrive in a world shaped by rapid technological change?<\/p>\n

In \u201cAI\u65f6\u4ee3\u4e0e\u5927\u5b66\u7684\u4eba\u6587\u6559\u80b2\u201d [Humanities Education in the Age of AI] (Lianhe Zaobao<\/em>, 28 May 2026), Raffles Professor of Humanities Ong Chang Woei (NUS Chinese Studies) reflects on the place of humanities education in the age of AI. Responding to recent discussions on the future of university education, he argues that while AI may change how students learn, write, and access information, it does not reduce the importance of the humanities; if anything, it makes humanistic thinking more necessary.<\/p>\n

The article begins with a practical concern. AI tools can now summarise texts, generate essays, and provide quick answers across many fields. This has led some to question whether traditional humanities training remains useful. Ong suggests that such doubts often come from a narrow understanding of value, where education is measured mainly by efficiency, output, and employment outcomes. Humanities disciplines, however, cultivate capacities that are not easily replaced by machines: critical interpretation, ethical reflection, historical awareness, empathy, and the ability to ask meaningful questions.<\/p>\n

For Ong, the point is not to reject AI or treat it as a threat to human learning; instead, universities should help students use AI well while also recognising its limits. AI can assist with collecting information and organising ideas, but cannot replace the slow work of judgement, interpretation, and self-understanding. In this sense, humanities education offers more than content knowledge \u2013 it trains students to read carefully, think across contexts, and understand the relationships between people, society, and technology.<\/p>\n

Ong also notes that the pressure on humanities education today is not only technological, but social and institutional. Universities are increasingly asked to justify education through employability and market demand. While these concerns are important, Ong cautions against making them the only measure of a university\u2019s purpose. A university should not only prepare students for work, but should also help them become reflective individuals capable of participating thoughtfully in public life.<\/p>\n

He therefore calls for a more balanced view of higher education in the AI era. Science, technology, and professional training remain essential, but they should not crowd out the humanities. As AI takes over more routine forms of production, the human capacities developed through the humanities \u2013 the ability to care about meaning,\u00a0 understand difference, make ethical choices, and imagine better futures \u2013 may become even more valuable.<\/p>\n

Rather than asking whether the humanities can survive AI, Ong asks a deeper question: how can universities ensure that education remains truly human in an age of intelligent machines?<\/p>\n

Read the article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Photo: iStock\/vittaya pinpan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As artificial intelligence becomes part of everyday work, study, and decision-making, universities are facing a familiar but newly urgent question: what kind of education helps students thrive in a world shaped by rapid technological change? In \u201cAI\u65f6\u4ee3\u4e0e\u5927\u5b66\u7684\u4eba\u6587\u6559\u80b2\u201d [Humanities Education in the Age of AI] (Lianhe Zaobao, 28 May 2026), Raffles Professor of Humanities Ong Chang […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":404,"featured_media":36262,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4533,4529,4606,4609,4604],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chinese-studies","category-news","category-research","category-singapore-research-nexus","category-visible"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/404"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36261"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36266,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36261\/revisions\/36266"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}