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AI in education position paper

AI is influencing how businesses, industries, and technologies operate, as well as how education is delivered, now and in the future. It should not be seen as something intimidating or detrimental to learning but rather be used appropriately as an aid to support teaching and learning. Policy in this area needs to go beyond considerations of automating tasks to consider fundamental principles of AI as a technology.

Education surrounding AI should not only include how to use it responsibly, but should also cover the environmental impact, ethical considerations, transparency and understanding of how and why it works the way it does. This will empower the next generation with the skills to embrace new technologies not just to use it, but understand it, thereby increasing product safety and productivity of the users.

The IET’s recommendations:

  • The Department for Education Guidance provides clear guidance that we support, they should continue to review evidence and provide up to date guidance to schools on suitable use of AI, developed in partnership with experts in the field. This should focus not only on the use of AI but the education about AI as a technology.
  • The Department for Education should take a leading role in procurement of suitable AI tools across the education sector to ensure they are trained on the right data and security from cyber manipulation or attack.
  • The Department for Education, together with teachers, students, parents and professional bodies should collaborate on an open-source resource centre for AI developers so that products can be aligned to the curriculum and trained on data suitable for the audience. Answers must be aligned to the appropriate curriculum stage in order to be of benefit to learning.
  • Education around AI should focus on broader considerations such as environmental impact and ethics, and how to use it responsibly. A short module should be developed, that is available to a broad audience including teachers, students, parents and other professions that outlines how to use AI in a positive way, as well as its limitations. This is a transferrable skill that will equip, particularly young people in education, to be agile with new technologies throughout their career later in life.