On May 9th 2025, the National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST) General Education Center hosted the Automated Civilization Seminar to reflect on “Humanistic Literacy and Cross-Domain Learning in the AI Era”. Participating teachers and students came from a number of institutions including National Chengchi University, National Sun Yat-sen University, National Taiwan University of Arts, National Kaohsiung Normal University, National Chin-Yi University of Technology, Deh Yu College of Nursing and Health, Tajen University and National Experimental High School at Pingtung Science Park. Together, they had an in-depth discussion on the ways in which AI is affecting education and culture.
A number of lectures, paper presentations, and AI creative competitions were scheduled throughout the day, with the four keynote lectures including: “AI Sustainable City”, “AI and Gender Equality”, “Generating Music with Suno AI”, and “Generative AI and Literature”. The seminar saw enthusiastic participation with 196 submissions coming in from the university group and 33 submissions from the high school group, making for 229 contributions in total. After evaluation, 10 works from each group were selected for exhibition and on-site voting.
Commenting on the trends in AI and education, Vice President for Academic Affairs Shui-jen Chen said, “if general education wants to keep pace with the times, it must actively embrace AI technology and creatively work to incorporate generative tools in the humanities so that the next generation of students will not only be able to use technology, but also be able to think deeply about its meaning and impact.” Chairman Zuway-R Hong of the Taiwan Congress on College General Education also pointed out that “improving workplace competitiveness for college students is an important aim and undertaking for university teachers—so we must seize the opportunities of this new AI era”. For visitors to the NPUST campus, Director Tin-Yu Wu of the Department of Information Management was also invited to introduce the AI-enabled Smart Computing Classroom which was newly established on campus to help NPUST apply AI to its “Intelligence Agriculture” (IA) development goal.
The seminar focused on the cross-domain integration of general education in the AI era. Through the four main sessions participants deeply explored the applications and challenges of AI technology when it comes to sustainable development, arts and cultural creation, general education, and cultural classics. Topics covered AI-led sustainable urban transformation, gender equality and legal observation, the use of AI-generated music in teaching, and the ways in which AI can assist with the innovative interpretation of classical literature, making it clear that AI is not only a tool for technological innovation, but also an important opportunity to stimulate reflection in education and the humanities. Through the quality lectures, the participants were able to gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between technology and human values, and the diversified development paths that are unfolding for general education in the future. This seminar also demonstrated the forward-looking vision and practical capabilities of NPUST when it comes to the integration of AI and the humanities, and it was an opportunity to promote cross-domain dialogue and set an innovative example for the development of higher education in southern Taiwan.
