On 20 August 2026, AICET Director Prof. Ben Leong hosted a delegation from Shanghai University, comprising postgraduate students and the Vice Dean, together with a delegation from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), comprising a postgraduate student and Dr. Li Wei, Programme Director at NTU and CEO of Transfong Ventures.
Prof. Ben opened with a familiar set of tensions educators are grappling with: how to prevent cognitive offloading, where the line sits between good AI use and over-reliance, and what students actually need to learn in an AI-saturated world. He framed the difference between productive and harmful AI use through a “Copilot vs Autopilot” lens. Used well, AI paired with a human produces something better than AI alone; used as an autopilot, with no real judgment behind it, the result is no better than the AI working by itself. He was careful to frame this as a problem of discipline and self-regulation, not a cognitive one.
On the future of work, he pointed to a more structural concern than any single skill or subject choice: a widening gap between the number of young people entering the workforce globally over the next 15 years and the number of jobs likely to be available to them. His takeaway for educators and students alike was to focus less on competing with AI technically, and more on capabilities AI still struggles to replicate — metacognition, comfort with ambiguity, and genuine craftsmanship.
Prof. Ben walked delegates through AICET’s tools in detail, giving the visiting academics a hands-on feel for how the platforms actually work in practice. The visit gave the delegates a closer, more practical look at AICET’s work, and reflected the kind of engaged exchange AICET hopes to foster with its academic partners — one where the real value often lies less in the presentation itself, and more in the questions they provoke.