When AI Passes the Medical Board: My Guide to the Education Revolution

TL;DR: This year, AI passed the entrance exam for NTU Medicine (the hardest exam in Taiwan) and won Gold at the Math Olympiad. The barrier to entry for "knowledge work" has collapsed. Parents are panicked, asking what their children should learn to survive. The answer is counter-intuitive: Stop treating children like children. The goal is no longer knowledge accumulation; it is "Management Capability" and "Inquiry." Most importantly, to save your child's future, you must first save yourself from AI anxiety.

James here, CEO of Mercury Technology Solutions.

The benchmarks are falling faster than we can track.

• Last year, ChatGPT took Silver in the Math Olympiad. This year, it took Gold.
• In coding competitions, problems that stumped humans were solved perfectly by ChatGPT-5.
• Most shockingly: AI was fed the university entrance exams for National Taiwan University (NTU) Medicine—the pinnacle of academic difficulty in Taiwan. It passed.

A top Google engineer recently admitted that AI gave him a 10x productivity boost at the start of the year. By September, it was 100x.

This leaves every parent with three burning questions:

1. What should my child learn to avoid obsolescence?
2. When should I let them use ChatGPT?
3. If white-collar and engineering jobs are being automated, what is left?

The answers require a complete inversion of how we view education.

The Capability Split: Where AI Wins (and Fails)

To understand the future, we must define the boundary.

• Where AI Wins: From elementary textbooks to Ph.D. dissertations, AI now "knows" all text-based knowledge. If it is written down, AI has mastered it.
• Where AI Fails: A two-year-old knows a ball rolls down a slope, hot water burns, and glass cuts. AI has zero "physical intuition."

The Cruel Paradox: The more "white-collar" and knowledge-heavy the job (finance, law, coding), the more vulnerable it is. The more "blue-collar" and physical the job (plumber, nurse, electrician), the safer it is.

Goldman Sachs predicts 2.5% of global jobs are already impacted. But empathy, physical care, and complex manual interaction remain the unbreachable moats of humanity.

Concept 1: Stop Treating Children Like Children

Why? Because the traditional "slow accumulation of knowledge" is dead.

In the AI era, every child has a 24-hour Super Tutor by their side. I have seen families in Silicon Valley homeschooling 6-year-olds using the same curriculum as Stanford undergrads, tailored by AI.

• A 5-year-old chats with AI for an hour about dinosaurs.
• A 4-year-old "generates" a Christmas card using voice commands.

These children are AI Natives. We are just AI Immigrants. To an immigrant, AI is a tool. To a native, AI is a mother tongue. Do not fear that AI will hurt them; they are the only ones who will reap its full benefits.

The Age-Based Strategy: From Exploration to Management

0-6 Years: Exploration Over Intellect

• The Rule: If they can speak, they can use it.
• The Strategy: Focus on Art, Physical Education, and Social Skills. Subtract "Intellect" (rote learning). Let them use AI to generate music, art, and stories.
• The Risk: We don't know the long-term effect of a 6-year-old having a Ph.D. tutor. But the greater risk is blocking their access to their future native language.

6-12 Years (Elementary): The Danger Zone

• The Trap: This is the era of "The Fishing Rod vs. The Fish."
• The Problem: If a child throws their homework to ChatGPT, they get the fish (the answer) but lose the rod (the ability to think). This is like using GPS so much you forget how to navigate your own neighborhood.
• The Metric: After outsourcing the task, did you retain a new capability? Outsourcing memory to GPS is fine if it lets you explore further. Outsourcing thinking is pure regression.

12+ Years (Middle School): The "CEO" Mindset

• The Pivot: By now, they have basic skills. Teachers must stop giving "fill-in-the-blank" questions.
• The Strategy: Project-Based Learning (PBL). Treat the middle schooler like the Chairman of a small company.
• The Insight: Who loves AI the most? The Chairman. They operate by "moving their mouth" to give instructions. Teach children to manage multiple "AI Interns" to execute complex projects. This is Management Capability.

University: Return to the "Greek Era"

• The Shift: No more Arts vs. Sciences. Everything is interdisciplinary.
• The Logic: Every student has an "AI Exoskeleton." Their ability to explore is greater than their ability to memorize. Common Sense is now more valuable than specialized knowledge.
• The Assignment: Don't ask AI to write an essay. Ask AI to write 10 essays, cross-compare them, and have another AI grade them. Grade the process, not the output.

Concept 2: Save Yourself First

This is the most critical advice for anxious parents. You cannot guide your child if you are drowning in anxiety.

The Action Plan:

1. Become a Happy User: Don't try to understand the neural network architecture. Just use it.
2. The confidence Loop: Use AI to solve 2-3 small problems daily.
   • Scan a medicine bottle to check for side effects.
   • Take a photo of a cut to see which bandage to buy.
   • Plan a travel itinerary.
3. The Result: Once you feel the utility, your fear turns into mastery. Then—and only then—can you guide your child.

The Core Skill: The Art of the Question

We used to teach Problem Solving. Now, we must teach Problem Asking.

Dr. Lee-Feng Chien suggests a brilliant technique: "Treat the AI like a Boss, then treat it like an Employee."

• As Boss: Ask humbly, "What am I missing? What context do you need?"
• As Employee: Command strictly, "This isn't good enough. Rewrite it with this specific data."

This cycle of interaction is the new literacy.

Conclusion: The Hybrid Strategy

Kasparov, the chess grandmaster, spent 30 years agonizing over his loss to Deep Blue. Eventually, he realized that AI didn't kill chess; it made it more popular and accessible than ever. His advice? "Be a happy user. Join them."

For the next 20 years, no expert knows the "right" way to teach. The system is guessing. The safest strategy is Hybrid:

• Stay in the system to get the "Fishing Rod" (Basic foundations).
• Go outside the system to get the "Fish" (AI empowerment).

Don't wait for the school to catch up. Become a happy user, and be the guide your AI-native child needs.

Mercury Technology Solutions: Accelerate Digitality.