Rev. Kam, IMC Managers, Honoured Guests, Principal Ho, Teachers, Parents, and Students,
Welcome to the Maryknoll Fathers’ School 2023 graduation ceremony. It is a true pleasure and honour to have Rev. Paul Kam Po-Wai, Vicar General, as our officiating guest. The presence of the Vicar General with us of course adds a lot of illustrious eminence to the occasion. But there are two more reasons to invite him to this celebration. First, Rev. Kam is well connected to youth as the Diocese’s expert on youth affairs. He headed the Diocesan Youth Commission before appointed Vicar General. Second, he has a life-time association with the Maryknoll Fathers who founded this school and like them, he has served as a missionary in a foreign land - Rev. Kam is the first diocesan priest from HK to serve as a missionary overseas. In fact, the Maryknoll Fathers had helped to organize his first mission to Tanzania. I am looking forward to hearing his words of advice to our graduates.
Today is a day of bidding farewells. We are bidding farewell to our F.6 students who are leaving adolescence to enter adulthood. We are also bidding farewell to our Principal, Mr. Lobo Ho, who has served the school for 10 years and Vice Principal Mr. Chow Kai Yin for 38 years. They will be taking their official retirement at end of the term. These two educators have supported our students through thick and thin. Mr. Chow is a committed and diligent leader who is ready to take up any duty assigned by the school and help others to solve their problems. Mr. Ho has guided the school to venture into new horizons in STEM and sports with his wealth of experience and creativity. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them and wish them all the best in their future endeavours.
I would like to extend my thanks to all the teachers, staff and student helpers who have worked very hard to make this event memorable.
Today, the world is also bidding farewell to the conventional mode of logic deduction using human brains to using Artificial Intelligence. Society’s hottest discussion today is not what AI can do for us, but what AI may do to us. Even the founder of Chat GPT openly expressed his concerns on AI development at Tuesday’s US congressional hearing. It is ironic that not too long ago we had longed for the availability of AI to lighten our labours and improve our quality of life, but now we are worried that AI may take away our jobs and take over our lives. There are many doomsday views on AI applications as the technology evolves. But I would venture to argue otherwise.
There are countless examples of quantum leaps made in human history that revolutionized society at the time. The 18th century industrial revolution is an illustrative example of how the leap to mechanization freed humans from manual labour, enabling them to have time to exploit their intellectual ability to grow economy and improve living. In the same way, the AI leap forward is another milestone in the ongoing progress of human society. It should be welcome and not be dread. The issue on hand is how we can direct it to constructively achieve the righteous and virtuous goals we set.
AI can replace tedious and mechanical work, but it can’t replace the influential impact of one’s life on another. AI driven robots can diagnose diseases and dispense medicine, but it can’t replace a doctor’s caring consolation to the terminally sick or his carers. AI can help to navigate an aeroplane but only a pilot’s physical presence can pacify and reassure an agitated passenger. Chat GPT can help a judge to collect evidence and research on legal arguments, but the judge needs to exercise his own jurisprudence, discernment, and empathy to make an apt judgement.
AI is a means and not the end to improved living. So, what is the good life we are looking for? Surely, we want to reduce the sweat and toil of human labour, to achieve more accuracy, efficiency, and safety for motor manoeuvres, to improve the overall quality of life for all. But above it all, in higher order of thinking, we are looking for a life of happiness and fulfilment, for a community filled with love and dignity, for a world of peace and justice. Indeed, we are to manage and direct AI development to achieve these goals.
Today’s education emphasizes on teaching STEM, and especially on program coding, technical skills to advance AI development. While it is important that we are to be equipped to handle new technology, we must be insightful of our future, on how to harness technological development to build the world we want to live in. In addition to knowledge of STEM, we must broaden our knowledge base to humanity subjects such as art, literature, law, history, philosophy, social studies, religion etc. for the vision and core values needed to guide technological development to enable us to live a meaningful and fulfilling life.
My dear graduates, I congratulate you on entering a new world that my generation have never imagined to be possible. Your complex problems can be solved much faster and easier, you will have access to mountains of information in a split second to make informed decisions, you can command robots to do tedious and tiring tasks, so you have time for enjoyable ones. But you will only be able to harness technological benefits beneficially if you develop and apply them with the correct sense of purpose. You will have to lead technological advances by having a comprehensive understanding ourselves and the complex world we live in, by possessing a profound appreciation of the meaning, value, and identity of human society, to be able to think critically and analytically, as well as having a desire to continue to learn, and staying positive and motivated no matter how challenging situations may appear.
Remember three C’s in pursing personal growth – CURIOSITY, COURAGE and COMPASSION. Have the curiosity to explore new knowledge, the courage to reach out of your comfort zone, and the compassion to serve the greater common good.
My dear graduates, spread your wings and fly. I wish you all the Lord’s grace as you begin a new chapter in life. May the Lord bless and guide you in all your pursuits, for a bright and rewarding future, for yourself, your family, and the community that you serve.
Agnes G. Yeh
Supervisor
