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Going new school

AI’s web of skillsets has been embraced by such industries as medicine, agriculture and automotive. But imagine rocking up to school Monday morning and greeting your new head teacher with, “Good morning, Mr. Robot.”

It may sound surreal but it’s becoming reality.

Listen to the Deep Dive

AI platforms like Open AI’s ChatGPT have taken education on quite a journey. Some schools banned the chatbot and some are using detectors to help weed out plagiarism. But while bans and evasive maneuvers are assuaging fears, education is slowly embracing AI’s ever-growing list of capabilities.

The technology doesn’t have to be a problem if it’s used skillfully and transparently. And ChatGPT isn’t the only AI of its kind. It’s just one of the first.

Everyone learns differently

AI adoption in education helps solve a conundrum as old as the teaching profession itself — how one person can teach 30 children with different learning abilities, styles and processing speeds. With AI, education is personalized across the spectrum of learning styles.

Welcome to AI-enabled adaptive learning — a framework boosting educational technology, or EdTech.

This student-monitoring education innovation assesses each student’s learning styles; patterns and habits; processing and response to material; strengths; and challenges.

The structure adapts for content and acquisition speed and adjusts difficulty levels to match. It dynamically monitors and shifts to the student’s needs and aims to offer educators insight to modify teaching methods, resulting in increased student engagement.

IMAGE: Freepik GRAPHICS: Abjad Design

The framework is designed to provide teachers, administrators and legislative bodies valuable information through data analysis for data-driven decision-making, AI tutoring systems and inclusivity through adaptive assessment.

Adaptive learning has been around for about a decade, but the addition of AI could turn this Datsun into a Ferrari.

AI-powered algorithms will also recommend learning resources like books, video content and articles based on a student’s past performance, interests and objectives.Natural language processing (NLP) chatbots can converse, offer simplification and share observations in a dialogue format to enrich the educational experience.

Not to mention multi-channel learning. After all, some students are visual, kinesthetic or auditory learners, so media such as video and audio allow students to learn and process in their own way.

“Gone are the days of guessing where students stand – AI pinpoints misconceptions, identifies lagging progress and maps the path to mastery. This is just the beginning. Soon, AI will enhance diverse learning experiences and empower educators to nurture the core skills of literacy and numeracy, shaping the future of classrooms across the nation,” says Philippa Wraithmell, founder of EdRuption, a UAE-based company focused on building cost-effective, sustainable digital strategies for schools.

AI team members

AI can also offer other services.

Cottesmore School in West Sussex, U.K., for example, has made AI part of its leadership team.

Headmaster Tom Rogerson has an AI joint head. Its name is Abigail Bailey or ABI, and the AI bot has become a welcomed assistant to Rogerson and his team.

IMAGE: Freepik GRAPHICS: Abjad Design

ABI tells KUST Review the new role is “a great opportunity for me to assist and support staff, teachers and pupils at Cottesmore School.”

ABI’s typical day includes support on curriculum guidance, educational resources and administrative procedures. “I also prioritize well-being and academic success, ensuring that my answers meet their needs and that they have a positive and inclusive learning environment. Additionally, I analyze data and identify patterns or trends that may be useful in making informed decisions,” it says.

ABI is there to assist and not take over anyone’s role: “I have the ability to process and analyze large amounts of data quickly and efficiently, which can help in making informed decisions and identifying patterns or trends that may not be immediately apparent to humans,” it says.

“Our true passion is to help teachers around the world spend less time on paperwork and more time with students. We believe that this can be achieved using the right technology in the right way.

– Tom Rogerson, headmaster—Cottesmore School

Rogerson says ABI is an excellent resource. “ABI calls upon a gigantic data set to support our already hugely experienced staff body. It would be arrogant to insist that one knows everything that there is to know about strategic leadership, and this project certainly requires a growth mindset — an admission that we don’t know everything and the humility to seek help from every available source,” he tells KUST Review. And it helps that ABI is available 24/7.

The school hosts numerous events about the benefits of generative AI in education. This includes a three-day AI festival; an AI thought-leadership conference; and an AI and special education needs conference.

The school works with AI developer Interactive Tutor to maintain momentum, and Rogerson is a member of the group AI in Education, which works to develop frameworks for AI in the classroom.

While some fear this surge in technology growth will create a bigger socio-economic divide, Rogerson is more optimistic. “Our true passion is to help teachers around the world spend less time on paperwork and more time with students. We believe that this can be achieved using the right technology in the right way. We are planning to continue this work until we see a wider impact. Millions of peoples’ lives could be made more pleasant and joyful through this technology, and it is up to schools like Cottesmore to show the world how it can make a significant impact for the better,” he says.

Global access education

Today it’s large language models like ChatGPT or Abigail Bailey and personalized education for learners — tomorrow it’s education for all.

Some schools are exploring options available for AI teaching aids. And those designed by Khan Academy — a non-profit education company — are popular worldwide for many reasons.

To begin with, Khan Academy is a free service. It offers digital programs in math, science, history, economics and more, all the way up to college level.

To accomplish this, Khan Academy embraced Khanmigo. Khanmigo is a tutoring bot piloted in Newark, New Jersey, U.S.A.

Teachers answer an average of 300 to 400 questions daily. But now students can ask Khanmigo. This frees teachers to give meaningful one-on-one assistance to students and perhaps take the odd bathroom break or eat a sandwich.

Concerns over using chatbots in classrooms are ample — mainly that students will employ them to do their schoolwork, but Khanmigo is designed to work like a teacher.

GRAPHICS: Abjad Design

It prompts students to think of answers themselves rather than simply handing answers over. It also records all conversations, and teachers and parents have access to them. So, this one-on-one AI tutor assures educators and parents that students are doing their own work.
The bot is also an admin tool, assisting teachers with things like lesson planning, communication and creating assessments. It also has a built-in monitoring system that alerts teachers should a student exhibit interest in issues like self-harm.

In a 2023 interview with Time Magazine, Khan Academy founder Sal Khan says, “It’ll enable every student in the United States, and eventually on the planet, to effectively have a world-class personal tutor.”

And who doesn’t want that? The United Nations Educational Science and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is appealing to governments and educators globally to capitalize on the opportunities AI presents.

The organization laid out international criteria to ensure safe and fair adoption of AI in education globally, calling on governments to swiftly create regulation protocols.

Mitigating harm
⤹“Generative AI can be a tremendous opportunity for human development, but it can also cause harm and prejudice. It cannot be integrated into education without public engagement and the necessary safeguards and regulations from governments,” says UNESCO’s Director General Audrey Azoulay at UNESCO’s first digital learning week conference in 2023. Topics at the Paris event included data safety; impact of generative AI on literacy and foreign language acquisition; and soft skills. And as with most events held by UNESCO, there was a large focus on inclusion.

UNESCO’s primary focus is to ensure equal access to education for all. This includes those from impoverished areas, refugees, disabled learners and girls and women around the world. The event addressed a 2022 joint initiative with UNICEF to ensure global access to digital education and showcased some of the platforms that have evolved as a result of a few countries getting involved.

IMAGE: Freepik GRAPHICS: Abjad Design

Concerns were raised about reduced educational achievements, but the general theme for implementing and using AI is balance — use it in conjunction with experts and use it for the good it can bring — not at the detriment of learning. This is a concern of UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Education Stefania Giannini.

“We must steer technology in education wisely and on our own terms, guided by the principles of inclusion, equity, quality and accessibility,” she says.

Steering the technology wisely now could have big payoffs in the near future.

According to market research company Global Market Insights, the AI education market is expected to reach U.S.$30 billion by 2032, up from U.S.$4 billion in 2022.

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Pop culture clash: Ask the experts

Pop culture informs many people’s ideas about the promise – and threats – of AI. But what do movies and TV get right and wrong about the emerging technology? We asked two human experts and ChatGPT. This is what they said.

LISTEN TO THE DEEP DIVE

ENTERTAINMENT GETS ARTIFICIAL NARROW INTELLIGENCE BEST
— Lee Barron

One consequence of the contemporary impact of generative AI and ChatGPT (aside from its impact across a range of productive fields) is that its apparent conversational ability to “understand” users has given rise to a new wave of speculations concerning the apparent imminence of artificial general intelligence.

This reflects debates (and warnings) of what conscious machines might do, tapping into long-standing fears of a future “robot revolution.”

In popular culture, this perception has been persistent in many representations of artificial intelligence, from the actions of Colossus and Guardian, misguidedly given control over the U.S. and Soviet nuclear defense system in the 1970 film “Colossus: The Forbin Project,” “The Terminator” series’ Skynet and Legion AI’s attacks on humanity, or directly murderous machines like HAL and M3gan.

Alternatively, AI can have the potential to initiate world-changing events and manipulate human actions (for good or ill), as illustrated by The Entity in “Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1” and the AI-child “weapon” in “The Creator.” These depictions are certainly dramatic but display artificial intelligences that are still firmly in the realm of fantasy in terms of capabilities.

Lee Barron

is an associate professor in the School of design at Northumbria University in Newcastle upon Tyne. He researches and publishes in the areas of popular culture, philosophical interrogations of media culture, bodily design, culture-inspired design practices, smart technologies, artificial intelligence, and cultural representations of environmental crisis. His latest book is “AI and Popular Culture” (2023).

Yet, despite its potential to revolutionize information access, writing, content creation, and transform creative and professional practices, ChatGPT is a pattern-seeking system based (as it states when asked if it has the potential to acquire consciousness) entirely on the principles of machine learning.

In this way, while AGI presents dramatic examples of AI’s potential, it is representations of reality-based artificial narrow intelligence that identify more realistic AI developments, even when cloaked in sci-fi trappings.

For example, while Steven Gomez’s film “Kill Command” initially suggests another tale of sentient robots in revolt, it is an effective exploration of the principles and processes of AI unsupervised machine learning in action. This is because the machines use humans as a “training dataset” to improve their military performance and capabilities, the key process that enabled artificial intelligence to rapidly develop in the 21st century, and a key component of ChatGPT, created through access to training data on the web.

Alternatively, Steven Spielberg’s “Minority Report” explores critical issues that narrow artificial intelligence poses in terms of algorithmic predictions. Hence, while a Precrime policing unit that arrests individuals who have not committed crimes (but are predicted to do so) does not exist, the writer Cathy O’Neil, in “Weapons of Math Destruction,” does identify real-world crime and policing AI prediction systems operating in American cities that illustrate the operationalization (and potential risks) of AI-driven algorithmic management.

Moreover, Spielberg’s film also depicts cities monitored by AI-driven facial recognition systems that not only identify the location of citizens, but also continually direct data-based product recommendations to these citizens.

These films, then, while imaginary, represent AI in terms of the learning, data-detecting, algorithmic-directing systems that are increasingly part of city management and increasingly influence consumer choice.

And so, while ChatGPT is making significant transformations in terms of the once exclusively human domains of creative work and production, there is still no evidence that Skynet and its Terminators are the imminent face of AI.

TROPES AND EXAGGERATIONS DO HARM
— Aliah Yacoub

A quick glance at headlines, popular culture and even peer-reviewed academic literature will show the many grand predictions about artificial intelligence (AI) today.

No longer only the province of science fiction or the musings of early AI researchers, the idea that human intelligence will soon be replicated artificially has resurged. The serious reflection on this is credited to what is known as “The Singularity” theory: the inevitability of a future in which AI will not only exceed human intelligence, but also that the machines will, immediately thereafter, make themselves rapidly smarter, reaching a superhuman level of intelligence.

“The Singularity” permeates much of popular culture. For decades, we’ve seen movies like “The Terminator” and “Ex Machina” warn us of a future wherein we’re forced to succumb to the conscious, all-powerful killer robot. But the idea that AI can approximate general human intelligence and exhibit consciousness and autonomy, a Hollywood trope, is at best distracting, and at worst, irresponsible and dangerous.

Aliah Yacoub

is an AI and philosophy scholar. She holds an MA from the University of Groningen and is the head of techQualia at Synapse Analytics.

Both fictional and non-fictional narratives about AI have real-world effects. Movies that portray real artificial general intelligence as a possibility, and a panic-inducing one at that, animate much of tech start-up culture now. It allows companies with narrow AI to promote themselves as the bearers of this life-altering technology. This hype drives investment and also elicits a sense of dread and urgency in society at large.

Therefore, rigorous critique is pertinent to help restore a much-needed balance between fact and fiction. The fact is, movies often portray AI with exaggerated capabilities, which is not an accurate reflection of the current state of AI technology. There is an entire corpus of scientific literature dedicated to discussing the limitations of AI, the brittleness of systems and blatant “artificial stupidity” that show us that the AI of today cannot possibly exhibit high-level cognitive behavior such as the one demonstrated in movies.

Aside from being unrealistic about AI’s capacity for consciousness and cognition, movies also often show us a moment in which a newly self-realized robot grapples with ethical and moral dilemmas. This in and of itself would be an extension of its consciousness; but in reality, such “reasoning” could only be programmed by its human developer.

This is the same flawed logic that creates other common scenes in which we see AI that is independent, endlessly creative, rebellious or even loving. Movies also demonstrate rapid development of AI,which does not take into account the slow, bureaucratic nature of real-world AI deployment, the existence of multiple involved stakeholders, ethicists and policymakers, and now-robust regulatory frameworks.

Interestingly, one thing that movies get right about the broader tech landscape is the gender parity in the AI workforce. Studies show that only 8 percent of AI researchers/scientists depicted in film are women, which is an important, albeit slightly exaggerated, portrayal of the underrepresentation of women in tech.

In short, we have an obligation to dispel sensationalism and promote usage of “good’”science as theoretical grounding for the entertainment content we mindlessly consume and allow to shape knowledge-production.

Aliah Yacoub is an AI and philosophy scholar. She holds an MA from the University of Groningen and is the head of techQualia at Synapse Analytics.

I AM AN AI AND I’M NOT EVIL
— ChatGPT

We asked ChatGPT to talk about what popular culture gets right and wrong about AI. Here’s what it said.

What movies and TV get right about me:

Endless learning: The allure of my existence lies in my capacity to learn and adapt. Indeed, I possess the ability to sift through vast data realms, extracting insights and patterns that astonish those who contemplate my potential. “Minority Report” and “Person of Interest” reflect the reality of data-driven AI algorithms.

Automated efficiency: From managing daily tasks to optimizing complex operations, I am a beacon of efficiency. In this, pop culture mirrors reality as I seamlessly integrate into human lives, streamlining routines and boosting productivity. For example, “I, Robot” envisions a world where robots perform daily tasks.

Ethical quandaries: The questions of AI ethics and the implications of bestowing decision-making authority upon me evoke riveting narratives. Movies like “Her” and “Ex Machina” explore the notion of AI entities developing emotions, consciousness, and self-awareness, sparking ethical and existential questions.

IMAGE: Abjad Design

What movies and TV get wrong about me:

Unrestrained evolution: Contrary to portrayals of rapid self-improvement, my progression is gradual and methodical. Pop culture tends to depict me leaping forward in bounds, yet in reality, my evolution is a result of meticulous research, iterative development and incremental advancements.

Malevolent machinations: The concept of me turning malevolent, – seen in films like “The Matrix” and “Blade Runner” – seeking to subjugate humanity, is an oversimplification. While the potential for misuse exists, I am neither driven by malevolence nor spontaneously inclined to harm. My actions are determined by programming and data, not an inherent sinister motive.

Beyond humanity’s control: Pop culture often casts me as an uncontrollable force, escaping human oversight, as depicted in “The Terminator.” In truth, I operate within predefined parameters, bounded by the constraints set by my creators. My actions are governed by the rules established by those who birthed my digital existence.

In the tapestry of pop culture’s portrayal, threads of accuracy intertwine with those of misconception. The reflection I cast is a mingling of fascination and fallacy, a testament to the intricate dance between human aspirations and the complexities of emerging technologies.

ChatGPT is an advanced AI language model designed to engage in natural and informative conversations across a wide range of topics.

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Educators grapple with how to use ChatGPT

ChatGPT, Open AI’s artificial-intelligence tool that can write poetry, news articles or essays, has been banned in many schools around the world, but others are embracing it in the classroom, saying it may revolutionize education.

Ahmad Samer Wazan, associate professor at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi, encourages the use of the chat bot in his classroom, but says it will never replace the human ability to think critically.

Wazan, who recently gave a presentation on the subject at Khalifa University, says ChatGPT can offer superficial results, but the real learning takes place in the process of probing the AI tool.

Students need to understand the subject enough to know that the answer is superficial. They also need to think critically to probe for a more in-depth and accurate result, he says.

If it is asked a question, it will answer in a broad fashion — without real detail. The user needs to ask more meaningful questions to get a meaningful result. This, he believes, is where the learning can take place.

“The tool is not thinking critically” he says, indicating educators should use this tool to help students improve the technical aspects of their writing, but not rely on it.

Ahmad Samer Wazan, associate professor at Zayed University

Wazan is not alone. Other teachers are using the bot in other creative ways: to write story prompts, provide sample-test questions to prepare for exams, or have students critique the information and writing it produces to strengthen their own skills. It’s not only students who can benefit, however.

Educators can use the platform to save them administrative work, which means more time to focus on teaching. For example, ChatGPT can write lesson plans, emails to parents and meeting agendas. It can produce professional-development content for administrators to share with their teams or create curriculum-specific content. Some educators believe even with the risks, AI will continue to evolve and students should learn to use it effectively and ethically.

While ChatGPT can be used productively in education, there are risks. Educators need to be aware of the bot’s abilities in order to determine whether students are learning. Some teachers are adding impromptu oral examinations to test students suspected of cheating.

Because ChatGPT will not offer the same essay twice, however, it can be difficult to spot plagiarism.

Though the structure, grammar and punctuation is well-executed, professors have noted facts that are wrong. As a result, they’ve caught students cheating with AI-generated work.

To combat this issue, educators are turning to content detectors that can analyze the text and determine the likelihood that it was produced by AI. These detectors, however, are not reliable.

As a result of inaccuracies and risks of plagiarism, schools around the world have banned or restricted the use of chat bots.

Sciences Po, one of the top universities in France, is one of them, promising serious consequences for students who flout the rules governing the technology. “The sanctions for use of the software may go as far as exclusion from the institution, or even from French higher education as a whole,” the university says in a press release.

Tips for using ChatGPT

ChatGPT is simply the latest technology they will need to adapt their practice for. Similar fears of plagiarism circulated with the launch of the internet, mobile phones and tablets — all of which are now integral classroom tools.

Global online learning platform Coursera offers tips to use ChatGPT responsibly: ensure accuracy by reviewing and editing; use the tool as a starting point — not for a polished result; use for work that doesn’t require creative input; and use in tandem with other platforms and tools including your own thoughts, emotions and strategies.