If you are into tech, keeping up with the latest updates can be tough, particularly when it comes to artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI (GenAI). Sometimes I admit to feeling this way myself, however, there was one update recently that really caught my attention. OpenAI launched their latest iteration of ChatGPT, this time adding a female-sounding voice. Their launch video demonstrated the model supporting the presenters with a maths problem and giving advice around presentation techniques, sounding friendly and jovial along the way. 

Adding a voice to these AI models was perhaps inevitable as big tech companies try to compete for market share in this space, but it got me thinking, why would they add a voice? Why does the model have to flirt with the presenter? 

Working in the field of AI, I’ve always seen AI as a really powerful problem-solving tool. But with GenAI, I often wonder what problems the creators are trying to solve and how we can help young people understand the tech. 

What problem are we trying to solve with GenAI?

The fact is that I’m really not sure. That’s not to suggest that I think that GenAI hasn’t got its benefits — it does. I’ve seen so many great examples in education alone: teachers using large language models (LLMs) to generate ideas for lessons, to help differentiate work for students with additional needs, to create example answers to exam questions for their students to assess against the mark scheme. Educators are creative people and whilst it is cool to see so many good uses of these tools, I wonder if the developers had solving specific problems in mind while creating them, or did they simply hope that society would find a good use somewhere down the line?

Whilst there are good uses of GenAI, you don’t need to dig very deeply before you start unearthing some major problems. 

Anthropomorphism

Anthropomorphism relates to assigning human characteristics to things that aren’t human. This is something that we all do, all of the time, without it having consequences. The problem with doing this with GenAI is that, unlike an inanimate object you’ve named (I call my vacuum cleaner Henry, for example), chatbots are designed to be human-like in their responses, so it’s easy for people to forget they’re not speaking to a human. 

As feared, since my last blog post on the topic, evidence has started to emerge that some young people are showing a desire to befriend these chatbots, going to them for advice and emotional support. It’s easy to see why. Here is an extract from an exchange between the presenters at the ChatGPT-4o launch and the model:

ChatGPT (presented with a live image of the presenter): “It looks like you’re feeling pretty happy and cheerful with a big smile and even maybe a touch of excitement. Whatever is going on? It seems like you’re in a great mood. Care to share the source of those good vibes?” Presenter: “The reason I’m in a good mood is we are doing a presentation showcasing how useful and amazing you are.” ChatGPT: “Oh stop it, you’re making me blush.”

The Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) conducted a study looking at the emerging hopes and fears that parents and teenages have around GenAI.

One quote from a teenager said:

“Some people just want to talk to somebody. Just because it’s not a real person, doesn’t mean it can’t make a person feel — because words are powerful. At the end of the day, it can always help in an emotional and mental way.”  

The prospect of teenagers seeking solace and emotional support from a generative AI tool is a concerning development. While these AI tools can mimic human-like conversations, their outputs are based on patterns and data, not genuine empathy or understanding. The ultimate concern is that this exposes vulnerable young people to be manipulated in ways we can’t predict. Relying on AI for emotional support could lead to a sense of isolation and detachment, hindering the development of healthy coping mechanisms and interpersonal relationships. 

Arguably worse is the recent news of the world’s first AI beauty pageant. The very thought of this probably elicits some kind of emotional response depending on your view of beauty pageants. There are valid concerns around misogyny and reinforcing misguided views on body norms, but it’s also important to note that the winner of “Miss AI” is being described as a lifestyle influencer. The questions we should be asking are, who are the creators trying to have influence over? What influence are they trying to gain that they couldn’t get before they created a virtual woman? 

DeepFake tools

Another use of GenAI is the ability to create DeepFakes. If you’ve watched the most recent Indiana Jones movie, you’ll have seen the technology in play, making Harrison Ford appear as a younger version of himself. This is not in itself a bad use of GenAI technology, but the application of DeepFake technology can easily become problematic. For example, recently a teacher was arrested for creating a DeepFake audio clip of the school principal making racist remarks. The recording went viral before anyone realised that AI had been used to generate the audio clip. 

Easy-to-use DeepFake tools are freely available and, as with many tools, they can be used inappropriately to cause damage or even break the law. One such instance is the rise in using the technology for pornography. This is particularly dangerous for young women, who are the more likely victims, and can cause severe and long-lasting emotional distress and harm to the individuals depicted, as well as reinforce harmful stereotypes and the objectification of women. 

Why we should focus on using AI as a problem-solving tool

Technological developments causing unforeseen negative consequences is nothing new. A lot of our job as educators is about helping young people navigate the changing world and preparing them for their futures and education has an essential role in helping people understand AI technologies to avoid the dangers. 

Our approach at the Raspberry Pi Foundation is not to focus purely on the threats and dangers, but to teach young people to be critical users of technologies and not passive consumers. Having an understanding of how these technologies work goes a long way towards achieving sufficient AI literacy skills to make informed choices and this is where our Experience AI program comes in. 

Experience AI is a set of lessons developed in collaboration with Google DeepMind and, before we wrote any lessons, our team thought long and hard about what we believe are the important principles that should underpin teaching and learning about artificial intelligence. One such principle is taking a problem-first approach and emphasising that computers are tools that help us solve problems. In the Experience AI fundamentals unit, we teach students to think about the problem they want to solve before thinking about whether or not AI is the appropriate tool to use to solve it. 

Taking a problem-first approach doesn’t by default avoid an AI system causing harm — there’s still the chance it will increase bias and societal inequities — but it does focus the development on the end user and the data needed to train the models. I worry that focusing on market share and opportunity rather than the problem to be solved is more likely to lead to harm.

Another set of principles that underpins our resources is teaching about fairness, accountability, transparency, privacy, and security (Fairness, Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics (FATE) in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and higher education, Understanding Artificial Intelligence Ethics and Safety) in relation to the development of AI systems. These principles are aimed at making sure that creators of AI models develop models ethically and responsibly. The principles also apply to consumers, as we need to get to a place in society where we expect these principles to be adhered to and consumer power means that any models that don’t, simply won’t succeed. 

Furthermore, once students have created their models in the Experience AI fundamentals unit, we teach them about model cards, an approach that promotes transparency about their models. Much like how nutritional information on food labels allows the consumer to make an informed choice about whether or not to buy the food, model cards give information about an AI model such as the purpose of the model, its accuracy, and known limitations such as what bias might be in the data. Students write their own model cards based on the AI solutions they have created. 

What else can we do?

At the Raspberry Pi Foundation, we have set up an AI literacy team with the aim to embed principles around AI safety, security, and responsibility into our resources and align them with the Foundations’ mission to help young people to:

• Be critical consumers of AI technology
• Understand the limitations of AI
• Expect fairness, accountability, transparency, privacy, and security and work toward reducing inequities caused by technology
• See AI as a problem-solving tool that can augment human capabilities, but not replace or narrow their futures 

Our call to action to educators, carers, and parents is to have conversations with your young people about GenAI. Get to know their opinions on GenAI and how they view its role in their lives, and help them to become critical thinkers when interacting with technology. 

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The world of education is loud with discussions about the uses and risks of generative AI — tools for outputting human-seeming media content such as text, images, audio, and video. In answer, there’s a new practical guide on using generative AI aimed at Computing teachers (and others), written by a group of classroom teachers and researchers at the Raspberry Pi Computing Education Research Centre and Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge.

Their new guide is a really useful overview for everyone who wants to:

• Understand the issues generative AI tools present in the context of education
• Find out how to help their schools and students navigate them
• Discover ideas on how to make use of generative AI tools in their teaching

Since generative AI tools have become publicly available, issues around data privacy and plagiarism are at the front of educators’ minds. At the same time, many educators are coming up with creative ways to use generative AI tools to enhance teaching and learning. The Research Centre’s guide describes the areas where generative AI touches on education, and lays out what schools and teachers can do to use the technology beneficially and help their learners do the same.

Teaching students about generative AI tools

It’s widely accepted that AI tools can bring benefits but can also be used in unhelpful or harmful ways. Basic knowledge of how AI and machine learning works is key to being able to get the best from them. The Research Centre’s guide shares recommended educational resources for teaching learners about AI.

One of the recommendations is Experience AI, a set of free classroom resources we’re creating. It includes a set of 6 lessons for providing 11- to 14-year-olds with a foundational understanding of AI systems, as well as a standalone lesson specifically for teaching about large language model-based AI tools, such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini. These materials are for teachers of any specialism, not just for Computing teachers.

You’ll find that even a brief introduction to how large language models work is likely to make students’ ideas about using these tools to do all their homework much less appealing. The guide outlines creative ways you can help students see some of generative AI’s pitfalls, such as asking students to generate outputs and compare them, paying particular attention to inaccuracies in the outputs.

Generative AI tools and teaching computing

We’re still learning about what the best ways to teach programming to novice learners are. Generative AI has the potential to change how young people learn text-based programming, as AI functionality is now integrated into many of the major programming environments, generating example solutions or helping to spot errors.

The Research Centre’s guide acknowledges that there’s more work to be done to understand how and when to support learners with programming tasks through generative AI tools. (You can follow our ongoing seminar series on the topic.) In the meantime, you may choose to support established programming pedagogies with generative AI tools, such as prompting an AI chatbot to generate a PRIMM activity on a particular programming concept.

As ethics and the impact of technology play an important part in any good Computing curriculum, the guide also shares ways to use generative AI tools as a focus for your classroom discussions about topics such as bias and inequality.

Using generative AI tools to support teaching and learning

Teachers have been using generative AI applications as productivity tools to support their teaching, and the Research Centre’s guide gives several examples you can try out yourself. Examples include creating summaries of textual materials for students, and creating sets of questions on particular topics. As the guide points out, when you use generative AI tools like this, it’s important to always check the accuracy of the generated materials before you give any of them to your students.

Putting a school-wide policy in place

Importantly, the Research Centre’s guide highlights the need for a school-wide acceptable use policy (AUP) that informs teachers, other school staff, and students on how they may use generative AI tools. This section of the guide suggests websites that offer sample AUPs that can be used as a starting point for your school. Your AUP should aim to keep users safe, covering e-safety, privacy, and security issues as well as offering guidance on being transparent about the use of generative tools.

It’s not uncommon that schools look to specialist Computing teachers to act as the experts on questions around use of digital tools. However, for developing trust in how generative AI tools are used in the school, it’s important to encourage as wide a range of stakeholders as possible to be consulted in the process of creating an AUP.

A source of support for teachers and schools

As the Research Centre’s guide recognises, the landscape of AI and our thinking about it might change. In this uncertain context, the document offers a sensible and detailed overview of where we are now in understanding the current impact of generative AI on Computing as a subject, and on education more broadly. The example use cases and thought-provoking next steps on how this technology can be used and what its known risks and concerns are should be helpful for all interested educators and schools.

I recommend that all Computing teachers read this new guide, and I hope you feel inspired about the key role that you can play in shaping the future of education affected by AI.

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It’s been almost a year since we launched our first set of Experience AI resources in the UK, and we’re now working with partner organisations to bring AI literacy to teachers and students all over the world.

Developed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation and Google DeepMind, Experience AI provides everything that teachers need to confidently deliver engaging lessons that will inspire and educate young people about AI and the role that it could play in their lives.

Over the past six months we have been working with partners in Canada, Kenya, Malaysia, and Romania to create bespoke localised versions of the Experience AI resources. Here is what we’ve learned in the process.

Creating culturally relevant resources

The Experience AI Lessons address a variety of real-world contexts to support the concepts being taught. Including real-world contexts in teaching is a pedagogical strategy we at the Raspberry Pi Foundation call “making concrete”. This strategy significantly enhances the learning experience for learners because it bridges the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application. 

The initial aim of Experience AI was for the resources to be used in UK schools. While we put particular emphasis on using culturally relevant pedagogy to make the resources relatable to learners from backgrounds that are underrepresented in the tech industry, the contexts we included in them were for UK learners. As many of the resource writers and contributors were also based in the UK, we also unavoidably brought our own lived experiences and unintentional biases to our design thinking.

Therefore, when we began thinking about how to adapt the resources for schools in other countries, we knew we needed to make sure that we didn’t just convert what we had created into different languages. Instead we focused on localisation.

Localisation goes beyond translating resources into a different language. For example in educational resources, the real-world contexts used to make concrete the concepts being taught need to be culturally relevant, accessible, and engaging for students in a specific place. In properly localised resources, these contexts have been adapted to provide educators with a more relatable and effective learning experience that resonates with the students’ everyday lives and cultural background.

Working with partners on localisation

Recognising our UK-focused design process, we made sure that we made no assumptions during localisation. We worked with partner organisations in the four countries — Digital Moment, Tech Kidz Africa, Penang Science Cluster, and Asociația Techsoup — drawing on their expertise regarding their educational context and the real-world examples that would resonate with young people in their countries.

We asked our partners to look through each of the Experience AI resources and point out the things that they thought needed to change. We then worked with them to find alternative contexts that would resonate with their students, whilst ensuring the resources’ intended learning objectives would still be met.

Spotlight on localisation for Kenya

Tech Kidz Africa, our partner in Kenya, challenged some of the assumptions we had made when writing the original resources.

Relevant applications of AI technology

Tech Kidz Africa wanted the contexts in the lessons to not just be relatable to their students, but also to demonstrate real-world uses of AI applications that could make a difference in learners’ communities. They highlighted that as agriculture is the largest contributor to the Kenyan economy, there was an opportunity to use this as a key theme for making the Experience AI lessons more culturally relevant. 

This conversation with Tech Kidz Africa led us to identify a real-world use case where farmers in Kenya were using an AI application that identifies disease in crops and provides advice on which pesticides to use. This helped the farmers to increase their crop yields.

We included this example when we adapted an activity where students explore the use of AI for “computer vision”. A Google DeepMind research engineer, who is one of the General Chairs of the Deep Learning Indaba, recommended a data set of images of healthy and diseased cassava crops (1). We were therefore able to include an activity where students build their own machine learning models to solve this real-world problem for themselves.

Access to technology

While designing the original set of Experience AI resources, we made the assumption that the vast majority of students in UK classrooms have access to computers connected to the internet. This is not the case in Kenya; neither is it the case in many other countries across the world. Therefore, while we localised the Experience AI resources with our Kenyan partner, we made sure that the resources allow students to achieve the same learning outcomes whether or not they have access to internet-connected computers.

Assuming teachers in Kenya are able to download files in advance of lessons, we added “unplugged” options to activities where needed, as well as videos that can be played offline instead of being streamed on an internet-connected device.

What we’ve learned

The work with our first four Experience AI partners has given us with lots of localisation learnings, which we will use as we continue to expand the programme with more partners across the globe:

• Cultural specificity: We gained insight into which contexts are not appropriate for non-UK schools, and which contexts all our partners found relevant. 
• Importance of local experts: We know we need to make sure we involve not just people who live in a country, but people who have a wealth of experience of working with learners and understand what is relevant to them. 
• Adaptation vs standardisation: We have learned about the balance between adapting resources and maintaining the same progression of learning across the Experience AI resources. 

Throughout this process we have also reflected on the design principles for our resources and the choices we can make while we create more Experience AI materials in order to make them more amenable to localisation. 

Join us as an Experience AI partner

We are very grateful to our partners for collaborating with us to localise the Experience AI resources. Thank you to Digital Moment, Tech Kidz Africa, Penang Science Cluster, and Asociația Techsoup.

We now have the tools to create resources that support a truly global community to access Experience AI in a way that resonates with them. If you’re interested in joining us as a partner, you can register your interest here.

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(1) The cassava data set was published open source by Ernest Mwebaze, Timnit Gebru, Andrea Frome, Solomon Nsumba, and Jeremy Tusubira. Read their research paper about it here.

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