AI IN EDUCATION GAME

UP? OR GAME CHANGER?

Sir Anthony Seldon considers the impact that the arrival of AI will have on education and acknowledges that there is much that we still don’t fully comprehend about this gamechanging development.

At the start of the 2023-24 academic year, there was very little clarity about AI and its role in education. Is it all just hype, or is it the biggest game changer in town? For many, these questions remain as we end this academic year and are well into planning for the next one. So let me try to help provide some clarity by answering five questions you may never have asked.

WHY CAN’T WE JUST PUT A MORATORIUM ON AI TO ALLOW EVERYONE TIME TO CATCH UP AND FOR THE RISKS TO BE PROPERLY ASSESSED?

When ChatGPT-4 was launched in March

2023, an open letter was published signed by some of the biggest names in the industry calling for a minimum six-month pause in training of powerful AI systems. The idea was imaginative – but naive, a forlorn Canute-like gesture against an unstoppable incoming tide of innovation. All we can do is to try to understand what is happening. Sticking our heads in the sand ostrich-like is no way to respond to the silicon revolution. No power on earth is capable of stopping the ineluctable momentum of AI.

WILL AI BE JUST THE LATEST INNOVATION, E.G. LIKE INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARDS – EXPENSIVE AND BENEFICIAL BUT NOT REVOLUTIONARY?

AI will change every single aspect of schools and colleges, from the way students learn, the way teachers teach, administrators administer, pastoral tutors tutor, premises managers manage, leaders lead, the careers that career advisers advise on, and what governors govern. No area of school life, however small, will be left untouched by AI. Its ability to crunch vast quantities of data and provide individuated responses is changing not only education but every aspect of the world for which we are preparing our young people, including work. So, in short, it's not just the latest innovation.

CAN WE GUARANTEE THAT THE BENEFITS OF AI WILL OUTWEIGH THE DOWNSIDES?

Not yet. Schools could find themselves investing considerable money and time in AI to find little or no benefit and, worse, that it had a negative impact on staff and students’ welfare. We are not even aware of all the risks and downsides of AI. Because it’s developing so rapidly, many applications are still not apparent, and there’s been no time to do the research to inform us reliably about risk. The dangers we are aware of today –including cheating, invasion of privacy, deep fakes and manipulation, addiction and infantilisation – may only just touch the surface and there could well be far deeper dangers of which we are not yet fully aware.

On the flipside, the benefits are enormous – personalised learning and individualised formative assessment, bringing subjects to life in ways beyond the imagination and reach of any teacher, all delivered individually to each student at any time of day or any time of the school term or holiday that best facilitates their learning. Schools have a weighty responsibility to ensure that the benefits are maximised, and the potential downsides minimised through careful planning and considered risk mitigation.

Ai In Education

Originated at Epsom College in May 2023 and in partnership with Bourne Education Trust, AI in Education is an independent, not-for-profit body, composed of leading educators from all phases, sectors and settings, as well as heads of each of the UK's examination boards. Their work is guided by a panel of UK and international digital and AI experts, and a cross-party group of political advisers, providing specialist guidance on how to navigate the rapidly evolving AI landscape purposefully and safely.

foreseen. Nor do we see today the gigantic impact that AI will make. Some have a sense, and are already successfully applying it. But it is still in its infancy.

WHO CAN SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES TRUST FOR IMPARTIAL GUIDANCE?

The bad news is there is no one you can fully trust. Tech companies will make all kinds of plausible and reassuring claims for their products.