More than nine in 10 teens say they would be interested in learning in high school about how to work with artificial intelligence, according to a survey by the nonprofit Junior Achievement with the marketing and data firm Big Village, conducted between February and March of this year. In fact, students want to know more about AI. “The superpowers of AI are only available to people who know how to write or how to code,” Partovi said. The same idea applies to learning computer coding, he said. Understanding how it actually works underneath is important so that people recognize the weaknesses it has.”Īnd Partovi noted that students still need to learn how to write, even though the writing skills of technologies like ChatGPT are more sophisticated than most people might have imagined. “AI right now is based on probability and statistics. Instead, it’s “really advanced guesswork,” Partovi said. “If you’re an AP Computer Science kid, you’re going to get a little more in the technical weeds about it,” Breazeal said.īut all students must grasp that the decisions that AI makes-whether it’s to recommend a particular pair of boots to an Amazon customer or to flag a job applicant as a promising prospect for an employer-aren’t driven by the same kind of nuanced and creative reasoning a human can perform. To be sure, some students can delve deeper into the inner workings of AI than others, she added. These systems can actually improve over time, becoming more complex and accurate as they take in more information. It relies on systems that can actually learn, usually by analyzing vast quantities of data and searching out new patterns and relationships. need to understand that we’re really talking about people actually make and control and engineer.”Īrtificial intelligence technologies replicate human-like intelligence by training machines and computer systems to do tasks that simulate some of what the human brain can do. “People talk about these things like a conscious ether that surrounds us. “We need to demystify how these systems work, how you build these things, at a grade-appropriate kind of level, because there’s so much hype and confusion,” Breazeal said. Grasping the technical aspects of AI-how the technology perceives the world, how it collects and processes data, and how those data can inform decisions and recommendations-can help temper the oftentimes inaccurate perception that AI is an all-knowing, infallible force, experts say. Why it’s vital to have a basic understanding of how AI works Here’s how to begin developing AI literacy, according to experts and educators: 1. But most people don’t know how the internet works, how a smartphone works, how an algorithm works, and they definitely don’t know how AI works.” You learn to have a better understanding of your world. “And you teach those things to everybody, not just the botanists or the electricians or the surgeons. “When we all went to school, we learned how the light bulbs work or how the digestive system works or how photosynthesis works,” said Hadi Partovi, the CEO of, which works to expand computer science offerings in K-12 schools. But it involves delving into technical questions like: “What’s happening under the hood? How does it work? How does it impact me and the world around us?” said Bryan Cox, the lead computer science specialist at the Georgia education department.ĪI literacy is something that every student needs exposure to-not just those who are planning on a career in computer science, experts argue. The question of what makes a person AI literate is evolving. It’s critical for all students to have AI literacy if they are going to be using computers, or really, almost any type of technology” in their daily lives. “It’s not just in the realm of computer science and coding. “The AI genie is out of the bottle,” said Cynthia Breazeal, a professor of media arts and sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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