abstract

Nowadays a strong consensus is forming that the knowledge of how to use and communicate with AI should be included in the college liberal arts education. Meanwhile, South Korean universities are in the midst of discussing ways to introduce AI-related liberal arts program in their curriculum. This prompted us to explore the university situations in our neighboring countries, namely, Japan and China. We investigate how Japan and China are preparing university AI-related liberal arts education program and report the results in this paper. The current status of AI liberal arts education in the two countries can be summarized as follows. Japan has established a ‘Consortium for Strengthening Mathematical and Data Science Education’ and developed an ‘AI Literacy Standard Curriculum’. China is encouraging diverse majors to incorporate the knowledge of AI technology through ‘AI+X’ convergence model. Both countries have not yet explicitly established the AI liberal arts program per se, but are offering several AI-related courses such as ‘Introduction to AI’ to all university students. South Korean government and universities can take reference from Japan’s standard AI literacy curriculum and China’s ‘AI+X’ convergence model.

keyword: Artificial Intelligence, Literacy, Liberal Arts Education, Japan, China