According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which has hosted more than 40 ministers, less than 10 percent of schools and universities are following formal guidelines for using wildly popular artificial intelligence (AI) tools, such as the chatbot software ChatGPT. a groundbreaking online meeting on Thursday.
Ministers exchanged policy approaches and plans, discussing the agency’s new roadmap on education and generative AI, which can create data and content based on existing algorithms, but also make alarming factual errors, just like humans.
“Generative AI opens up new horizons and challenges for education, but us need to take urgent action to ensure that new AI technologies are integrated into education on our terms,” said Stefania Giannini, UNESCO Deputy Director-General for Education. “It is our duty to put safety firstinclusion, diversity, transparency and quality.”
Institutions face countless challenges in coming up with an immediate answer according to a new UNESCO survey of more than 450 schools and universities.
Rapidly evolving landscape
At the same time, governments around the world are shaping appropriate policy responses in a rapidly evolving education landscape, as national strategies on AI, data protection and other regulatory frameworks continue to develop or refine, according to UNESCO.
However, they proceed with caution. Risks in using these tools can be seen by students exposed to false or biased informationsaid some ministers at the global meeting.
The debate revealed others common concerns, including how to mitigate the chatbots’ inherent shortcomings in producing glaring errors. The ministers also discussed how this can best be done integrate these tools into curriculateaching methods and exams, and adapt education systems to the disruptions that generative AI quickly causes.
Many emphasized the teachers play a crucial role in this new era as tutors.
But teachers need guidance and training to meet these challenges, according to UNESCO.
Addition to existing frameworks
Teachers need guidance and training to meet these challenges. — Unesco
For its part, the agency will continue to steer the global dialogue with policymakers, partners, academia and civil society, in line with its paper, AI and education: A guide for policy-makers and Recommendation on the Ethics of AI, as well as the Beijing consensus on artificial intelligence and education.
So is UNESCO developing policy guidelines on the use of generative AI in education and research frameworks of AI competencies for students and teachers for classrooms.
These new tools will be launched during Digital learning weekwhich will be held from September 4 to 7 at UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris, the agency said.
Read more about UNESCO’s work on digital learning and education here.
