AI and Wellbeing talk at Hillingdon 

AI is here to stay. The statistics are showing us that we need to adapt and learn AI or we will not be able to have a job. 

So how do we teach children today to thrive in a world where we have no idea what it will look like in 5, 10, or 15 years?

I attended a discussion on AI and education at Hillingdon ACS school recently, where we discussed the good, the bad and the ugly of AI’s impact on our lives. 

It a few short years AI has gone from being a technology of the future, and into daily life. 

In the education space- with the right training and support, using AI can greatly reduce the workload of teachers. For example putting answers to test questions into ai and asking it to seek out common mistakes allows teachers to fine tune teaching and review time. 

Teaching students to study using AI that uses information that is needed to learn and having AI plan study sessions and make interactive quizzes to learn material. 

Teaching how students to effective use AI as well as to be skeptical of information presented to them, will help to keep them safe in a changing world. 

Safeguarding children with knowledge of never to share personal information or intimate photos of themselves. 

Thinking about the bias in AI, as it’s scraping information that already is on the Internet. Therefore it may have a tendency to reinforce existing stereotypes and historical perspectives, rather than challenging thinking or perceptions, as a human might. 

Continually discussing the reality of AI and things that could happen, pitched at the age of the children you are talking to is imperative. 

As AI becomes the norm, softer skills, which we have not have explicitly prioritised as something to teach before m, are becoming more important to teach directly. 

Things like interpersonal face-to-face interactions and dispute-resolution need to be taught to young people.

Teaching children to speak to someone about a small problem, rather than text them or waiting until a situations is inflamed, is needed for young people.