The 23rd Session of the International Future Education Salon Series: Generative Artificial Intelligence and Education—A Critical Research Perspective

Lecture Theme:

Generative Artificial Intelligence and Education—A Critical Studies Perspective

Lecture Time: May 13, 2024, 18:00-19:30

Lecture Venue: Li Jiao Building A101, Lakeside Outdoor Area

Format: Offline

Lecture Expert: Dr. Wayne Holmes

Affiliation: University College London

Expert Email: wayne.holmes@ucl.ac.uk

Lecture Summary:

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is frequently hailed as a ‘solution’ to many of education’s core problems (e.g., OECD, 2021) – problems such as the lack of qualified educators, student underachievement, and better preparing learners for 21st century career paths. However, such claims tend to be aspirational rather than evidence-based (Miao & Holmes, 2021), and overly simplistic, forgetting issues such as agency, pedagogy, surveillance, efficacy, and ethics (Holmes et al., 2021; Holmes et al., 2022; Holmes & Porayska-Pomsta, 2022). The growth of these claims and challenges has only been accelerated by the arrival of Generative AI. Although we are now almost 20 months since the launch of ChatGPT, the picture still isn’t clear. On the one hand Generative AI has been proposed as a tool to personalise learning and speed up academic research, on the other hand Generative AI has been identified as a tool that produces only simplistic, superficial, and often incorrect outputs. At the same time, Generative AI has been called the first step in Artificial General Intelligence, while other predictions suggest we are seeing the first steps of an AI winter, with model collapse on the near horizon. This presentation will explore Generative Artificial Intelligence and its application in education from a critical studies and human rights perspective. It will identify and address many of the key myths, it will argue for a new trajectory, and will pose more questions about Generative AI and education than it answers.

Expert Biography:

Wayne Holmes (PhD, University of Oxford) is a learning sciences and innovation researcher who teaches at University College London, and is a researcher on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and education (AI&ED) for UNESCO, IRCAI (the International Research Centre on Artificial Intelligence, under the auspices of UNESCO), and the Council of Europe. Having been involved in education throughout his life, Wayne brings a critical studies perspective to the connections between AI and education, and their ethical and social implications. His recent publications include The Ethics of AI in Education: Practices, Challenges and Debates, Artificial Intelligence and Education, through the Lens of Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law, Artificial Intelligence in Education. Promise and Implications for Teaching and Learning (2019), Ethics of AI in Education: Towards a Community-Wide Framework (2021), and, for UNESCO, AI and Education: Guidance for Policy-makers (2021). Wayne also co-authored the EU’s DigComp 2.2 Annex Citizens Interacting with AI Systems (2022), and has given invited talks on AI and education in Brazil, China, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, India, Japan, Oman, Slovenia, Spain, the UK, and the USA (and online to audiences in many other countries around the world).