By: Meaghan Franchi, Gianluca Berardis, Brandon Budhram
Ever since its conception AI has been considered a possible threat to humans and humanity. Movies like The Terminator and I, Robot have given us the impression that AI can get wildly out of hand. Destroying us and our planet. However, Hollywood is not real life and AI has become a very useful tool. Being afraid of inanimate objects coming to life has been a part of our culture for millenia but many AI experts believe the balance between AI’s potential benefits and risks remains precarious. Only the future will tell.
Tahniat Khan from the Vector Institute of Artificial Intelligence says AI is not scary, it’s exciting. It’s capable of tasks that can assist in our everyday learning experiences and it might just change the world.
As AI technology advances academic organizations will be on the forefront of educating people about AI’s capabilities and how to incorporate ethical practices into its usage.
As it stands there are no regulations in place to monitor AI and its content within Canada. Which is particularly concerning when it comes to privacy and personal data protection. Europe has developed rules and regulations surrounding the use of AI but Canada has no set guidelines for how to use AI yet.
AI can also be misleading, misinformed and miscommunicate. It can be racially biased and sexist. Statistics Canada also says that 40% of Canadians believe that AI’s decision-making ability is limited by how it is programmed.
Rethinking the lesson plan
Teaching people how to use AI properly is crucial. But AI in the classroom could be extremely beneficial as it has the capability of not just improving student learning, but it could also completely eradicate the need for textbooks altogether.
Students are already using their phones on an hourly basis, so turning the platform of a phone or tablet into a learning device as opposed to a tool being used mainly for game playing and chatting with friends and family could potentially be revolutionary.
Today’s children already know about digital technology and have had cellphones since childhood. Turning a phone into a learning device powered by AI could revolutionize the school system. AI can personalize lesson plans and make the learning experience easier for both the teachers and the students.
Children are already aware of AI technology and its uses. But as Natalia Harispuru Vice Principal at St. John XXIII Catholic School said,
“A lot of kids are going learn it from resources that are not credited”
ChatGPT and other AI tools are already being utilized by businesses around the world to maximize their profits and to become more efficient. But how long before it hits our classrooms?
It’s a very exciting time in history and the growing interest in AI over the last couple of years is proof that many Canadians are already thinking about it and its capabilities.
SPIKE IN INTEREST
“These numbers from Google Trends represent the ‘search interest’ on Google relative to the highest point on the chart for a selected region and time. A value of 100 is the peak popularity of the term.”
Rules and regulations
Due to the lack of rules and regulations surrounding AI platforms many organizations are choosing to use their own ethical discretions when it comes to how they utilize the technology. In a survey done by the Government of Canada 25% of Canadians think the government should take the lead when it comes to AI, with academic organizations a close second.
We have more technology at our fingertips than ever before and the way we move forward with it will be very important. ChatGPT and other AI programs do not cheat. People do and AI will not destroy the classroom. But ensuring that proper AI usage is taught to students is something that will be imperative to it being revolutionary. How long it would take to organize an AI based curriculum is still unknown but the benefits could be significant.
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