Vice President Reviews AI Training for Tremas Students in Pacitan

JAKARTA - Vice President (Wapres) Gibran Rakabuming Raka visited the Islamic Pondok Tremas School, Pacitan, East Java to directly monitor the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) training for students.

Vice President Gibran visited the Islamic Pondok Tremas University on Thursday, as a form of brotherhood and at the same time reviewing efforts to strengthen the younger generation, including students, to face digital transformation.

"Because it is very important later on to face the challenges of the digital age. All of this must be learned and the students must not be left behind," said Gibran as quoted by ANTARA, Thursday, April 30.

During the visit, the Vice President saw the learning process and results, had a dialogue with the students, and ensured that the training program ran optimally and provided real benefits in improving technological literacy capacity in the pondok environment.

The Vice President reminded that learning robotics, learning AI, and learning coding are very important to hone the critical thinking and computational thinking of students, so that they are not only users, but also creators of technology.

During the dialogue session with the students, Vice President Gibran responded to the anxiety of one of the students who admitted to being worried about technological developments. The student expressed his fear that after graduating, many jobs would be replaced by robots and artificial intelligence.

"Many jobs are replaced by AI, people also lose their jobs, such as in factories replaced by robots," said the student, giving an example.

Responding to this, the Vice President emphasized that humans still hold the main role behind technology.

"Who makes the robot? It's the human, right? It's AI that makes the prompt, the typing prompt is still human, right? In fact, there will be many new jobs now. So, don't be afraid. Humans will not be replaced," said the Vice President.

The Vice President emphasized that the key to facing change is the readiness to continue to learn and adapt.

"I believe that in the future it can be useful, especially if they later enter the world of work and this is what we call technological disruption that we can no longer control. That's why we have to always upgrade ourselves," he said.

Previously, the Pondok Tremas Islamic School Caretaker, KH Luqman Harist Dhimyathi, expressed his hope that the technology training program could continue and not stop at this activity alone.

"Everything we have gained during these two days, in the form of technology, information, and AI training, and others, hopefully can be sustainable, because our students are very happy and feel that they have gained extraordinary knowledge with this technology," he said.

For information, this AI and Robotics Training lasted for two days involving 30 male and female students at the Madrasah Aliyah level. This activity introduces a computational thinking-based robotics curriculum to strengthen logic, mathematical thinking, and problem-solving skills from an early age.

The program uses the Whalesbot robot which is arranged gradually from basic to advanced levels. Through hands-on practice, students learn to assemble and program robots while thinking systematically and critically.

During the visit, the Vice President was accompanied by the Special Presidential Envoy for Youth Generation and Arts Workers Raffi Ahmad, Deputy Governor of East Java Emil Dardak, and Deputy Regent of Pacitan Gagarin Sumrambah.