Does AI fall under physical sciences stream?

Hyderabad: Does artificial intelligence (AI) fall under the physical sciences stream? That's what the Telangana Board of Intermediate Education thinks. While the entire academic, research and innovation world thinks of it as an interdisciplinary subject area, the inter board has reportedly decided to put it in the physical sciences basket and to introduce AI as part of the physical sciences stream from the academic year 2025-26. One wonders what the great logic behind this great scholarly idea is. The board has constituted expert committees of professors and faculty members to prepare the syllabus for printing the textbooks to launch the course in the next academic year. It is learnt that the board has decided to introduce machine learning, data science and robotics at the intermediate level.

According to sources in the board, the decision has come against the backdrop of the AI, ML and Data Science being part of science streams at undergraduate level in the B Tech and other science streams.

Speaking to The Hans India, a faculty member in the know of the goings on in the Inter Board said that the decision has been cleared by the board Secretary S Krishna Aditya, following which, the committee of the experts were constituted to revise the syllabus. While doing so, they contemplated emulating the pattern of the 10+2 course syllabus of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). 

In addition to the physical sciences, the board has decided to revise the syllabus of chemistry, biology and other streams. Several boards and apex academic regulatory bodies have been placing the details of the changes that they intend to bring in the syllabus in public domain seeking suggestions and feedback from the stakeholders.

Recently, the Andhra Pradesh State Board of Intermediate Education (APSBIE) has also sought suggestions from the students, academicians and other stakeholders to submit their views. For this, the APSBIE has placed the proposed changes on its website to gather feedback. However, the inter board and the TG Board of Secondary Education, chose to keep everything under wraps as if they are dealing with secret defence contract deals related to national security.

Given the multidimensional application of AI across fields ranging from language, law, music, arts, commerce, management, engineering, physical and life sciences the decision of the inter board to put AI courses under the physical sciences stream is all set to deprive students of other subject areas from gaining the foundational knowledge in AI.