DIGIHUM Talk: Andra Siibak

"From artificial intelligence to artificial stupidity. Mapping the dominant enthusiasms and concerns related to the use of AI technologies in education"

Jakobi 2–103 and Zoom

Abstract

In the recent years, many educational institutions around the world, from early years to higher education alike, have become accustomed to making use of AI-based educational technologies in a variety of ways—for predicting outcomes and preventing risks, for providing insights into the processes of learning, or for personalizing the education system around every student’s personal needs. While some have greeted such uptake of AI-supported applications within the education sector with enthusiastic techno-optimism stressing the revolutionary powers of technology; others have been concerned about the potential harms such applications might have on students’ and teachers’ agency, privacy, and rights.

In my talk I will map currently ongoing debates regarding the use of AI in education sector to highlight the main enthusiasms and concerns the debates have triggered both amongst the scholarly community and in the international news media. The talk will be based upon the findings from different empirical case studies related to 1) the uptake of proctoring software by higher education institutions to combat academic dishonesty; 2) the usage of student online activity monitoring software by secondary schools to ease the concerns related to students’ wellbeing; 3) the algorithmic grading fiasco with the A-level exam results in the UK and 4) the public launch of Chat GPT.