Abstract: In the era of artificial intelligence, higher-order thinking that is a core human quality that higher education should focus on cultivating, has four characteristics:active, systematic, comprehensive and interdisciplinary.Some factors, such as the current pan-entertainment network environment, growth and changes in the dissemination of information and knowledge, and one-sided compartmentalized education and teaching have interfered with the development of higher-order thinking.Higher education teaching should make proper use of artificial intelligence to activate the initiative of students' thinking development by coordinating between individual nearest development zone and long-term social requirement zone, to promote the systemic nature of students' thinking construction by balancing between context building and multiple evaluations, to boost the development of the students' comprehensive thinking abilities by psychologically and emotionally integrated education, and to realize the interdisciplinary nature of thinking development by scaling up the whole process of teaching according to the needs, so as to help students develop human higher-order thinking that is different from the artificial intelligence.

Key words: the era of artificial intelligence, higher education, higher-order thinking, teaching reform