For universities, the essential task may no longer be simply keeping pace with technology, but serving as the space society uses to “design the future” through the creation of people, the creation of knowledge, and the creation of a civilisation where technology serves humanity with meaning. Ultimately, the mission of universities in the AI era can be summarised in a single concept: “Designing Humans to Design Civilisation,” built on inner awakening and the cultivation of wisdom, rather than merely the accumulation of technology and data.    

Khon Kaen University’s academic forum invites us to move past the question of whether AI will be smarter than humans, and ask a more important one: how can humans use intelligence, technology, and ethics together to design a new civilisation? Amid the great transition from the industrial world to the age of wisdom, the academic seminar “AI and Tech Revolutions: Implications on Humanity,” subtitled “Looking Back, Looking Forward: The Industrial Revolution, Artificial Intelligence, and the Future of Humanity,” was held on 5 August 2026, at the Hilton Bangkok Suvarnabhumi, as part of the Khon Kaen University Council meeting. Around 80 people, including university executives and council members, academics, researchers, distinguished experts, and specialists in AI, digital technology, and innovation, gathered to exchange perspectives. The three speakers each offered compelling insights on their respective topics.  

From the Printing Press to AI: Every Revolution Begins with the Spread of “Knowledge”

Dr. Narongchai Akrasanee, Chairman of the Khon Kaen University Council, traced for the audience the history of the Industrial Revolution, pointing out that the crucial turning point did not begin with machines, but rather with the wide dissemination of “knowledge.” The emergence of the Gutenberg printing press around 1440 CE meant knowledge could finally spread beyond a select few. This development continued into the Age of Enlightenment, which prized reason, science, and the verification of truth. The ideas of thinkers such as Francis Bacon, who said “Knowledge is Power,” show how knowledge not only changed the way humans think, but also became a force driving society forward. The world then entered the Industrial Revolution, marked by rapid advances in iron, steam engines, transportation, electrical power, telegraphs, telephones, automobiles, and electric motors. These advances were driven by energy and machinery, new communication systems, oil-based fuel, and the rise of market capitalism. 

However, history is not only the story of technological progress; it is also “the price humans had to pay” for such massive change — including inequality between labour and capital owners, transformations in economic and social structures, and the expansion of industrial nations’ power into colonisation across Asia. The key lesson, therefore, is that “technology has never been merely a matter of tools, but a force that transforms structures of power, the economy, and human ways of life,” said Dr. Narongchai. 

Lessons from Asia: Those Who Can “Adapt” Have the Opportunity to Shape Their Own Future

Dr. Narongchai emphasised that when the Industrial Revolution’s influence spread worldwide, countries in Asia faced the same challenge but chose different responses. India, China, Japan, and Thailand each met the arrival of Western power and technology in their own way. Japan, in particular, strategically embraced knowledge and technology, enabling it to build its own industrial capital base and later develop into an industrialised nation. Thailand, meanwhile, opened the country and restructured its economy and society to align with the new context. The signing of the Bowring Treaty led to the expansion of rice exports, the emergence of rice mills, sawmills, and early industries, as well as the development of transportation systems and changes in labour structure.

These historical lessons raise a question just as relevant today: as AI becomes the technology of a new era, how will countries, organisations, and universities “adapt” — not merely to become users of technology, but to become shapers of its direction?

The AI Revolution: When Machine Intelligence Is Growing Exponentially

If the Industrial Revolution changed the world through machines and energy, the AI Revolution is changing the world through “intelligence.” Assoc. Prof. Dr. Weerapong Phairsuwan, Ph.D., a Distinguished Experts University Council Member and expert in nuclear physics and technology, invited the audience to consider the future of AI through four key driving forces: advances in networks and the internet, computing power, big data, and the efficiency of algorithms and mathematical modelling. When these factors work together, AI’s capabilities develop at an accelerating rate never before seen.

From this perspective, AI development can be viewed in three key phases — starting from the era of Autonomous Agents and Agentic AI, where AI increasingly performs tasks on behalf of humans; moving toward AGI, or Artificial General Intelligence, can solve diverse problems across science and healthcare; and potentially developing further into Super Intelligence, capable of improving itself and rapidly expanding its cognitive reach. What will clearly change is “the world of work” — as AI and robots increasingly take on routine or repetitive tasks, workforce structures are likely to shift from relying on the quantity of labour toward collaboration between humans and AI.

But AI Has “Limitations” — and What Humans Must Preserve

Although AI’s capabilities are growing rapidly, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Weerapong pointed out that AI still faces limitations — physical limitations, limitations in logic and data, as well as limitations related to what it means to be human. Chief among the qualities humans must preserve are empathy, creativity, consciousness, and human safety.

Therefore, the real question is not how intelligent AI becomes, but how well humans develop “the ability to use AI” while maintaining judgement, ethics, and responsibility. AI should be a tool that enhances human potential — not something that dominates human thinking and decision-making entirely.

From Revolution to “Civilization Metamorphosis”

While the first two parts of the seminar took us on a journey from history to questions about the limitations of AI, Dr. Suvit Maesincee, former Minister of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation, led the discussion further, posing the question: how should humans design “civilisation” in an era where AI has become part of society’s operating system?

Dr. Suvit proposed that what is unfolding today may not simply be a “revolution” or “evolution,” but rather a “Civilisation Metamorphosis” — a fundamental transformation of society’s operating system, in which humans are simultaneously the creators of technology and the ones whose behaviour it reshapes in turn.

This transition unfolds along five key directions: away from an industrial civilisation and toward a civilisation of wisdom; from resource extraction to resource restoration; from competition to co-evolution; from separate human and artificial intelligence toward their integration as “Hybrid Intelligence”; and from the nation-state toward multi-centred networks of cooperation. This concept means that “humans and AI” need not be cast as winner and loser, but should instead be seen as a new form of relationship in which humans and AI can complement each other’s strengths. 

Wisdom + Intelligence: The Balance Humans Must Maintain

In a world where AI can massively amplify “Intelligence,” humans must place greater importance on “Wisdom.” Dr. Suvit explained that humans must balance “Wisdom for Life” — the wisdom for goodness, happiness, and the meaning of life — and “Intelligence for Living” — the intelligence that helps humans survive, work, and create convenience. This is the “yin-yang of intelligence,” which does not view intelligence and virtue as opposites, but as two complementary components that must fulfil each other. From this perspective, AI development should move from Automation and Optimisation toward Augmentation, and ultimately toward “Co-evolution” — humans and AI evolving together, viewing AI not merely as a tool but as a “partner” in building the future.

So What Should Universities Do as AI Changes the World?

This question may be the single most important question in the entire forum. As AI becomes capable of participating in the creation and processing of knowledge, universities can no longer perform their traditional roles without adapting.

Dr. Suvit proposed that universities must become “Civilisation Builders” and function as “Transition Architecture,” creating a “wisdom ecosystem” that gives humans and AI room to work together creatively. The challenge, therefore, is not merely bringing AI into classrooms or adding digital tools to universities, but posing new questions starting from the very “purpose of the university” through to the forms of learning management, research, social impact creation, and human development.

One key concept is the “Dual Operating System,” in which universities should have both a system for maintaining current excellence and a system for experimenting, designing, and creating new things for the future. At the same time, universities must place importance on “Cognitive Sovereignty” and create experimental spaces such as “Sandbox” and “Living Lab” environments, so that change can happen without dismantling the entire existing system.

From “Universities That Produce Graduates” to “Universities That Design the Future”

At a time when AI can help create knowledge, analyse data, and solve complex problems, universities may need to shift their question from “How will we produce graduates?” to “What kind of humans should we create for the future world?”

Dr. Suvit proposed that universities focus on creating “Imagineers” — those who can imagine the future and turn that imagination into reality — as well as creating “Change Makers” and “Civilisation Builders” able to tackle “Grand Challenges,” the immense challenges facing Thailand and the world.

Ultimately, universities may need to move past traditional disciplinary divisions toward the concept of a “Civilisational Studio” that integrates science, social science, and the humanities, using real problems of life and society as the core challenge — while building balance between humans and nature, humans and other humans, and humans and technology.

The Final Answer May Not Be AI, But “Humanity” Itself

Throughout the “Looking Back, Looking Forward” seminar, a single thread ran through all three perspectives: every time technology advances, humans must develop themselves to keep pace with it — but must not lose what makes us human. From the printing press to the steam engine, from electrical power to industry, from computers to the internet, and today from AI to systems of intelligence growing exponentially — every transition has created both opportunities and challenges.

The challenge of the AI era, therefore, is not a competition over “who is smarter, humans or AI,” but rather designing a new relationship that harnesses the strengths of both sides — with AI strengthening our capacity for data, analysis, and processing, while humans remain responsible for determining values, goals, meaning, and accountability. And on a day when the world is changing faster than we can predict, what may serve as the most important compass is not the most sophisticated algorithm, but something simple that humans have always possessed: “common human sense.” For the future of AI does not depend on how intelligent the technology becomes, but on how wisely humans choose to use that intelligence to build a better future.

News: Benjamaporn Mamook

Photos: Natthapong Chamnan-uea / Attapon Hampong