Artificial intelligence and school: let’s clarify
What links the world of artificial intelligence and that of school. The speech by Professor Enrico Nardelli of the University of Rome Tor Vergata, president of Informatics Europe and director of the National Laboratory "Informatics and School" of CINI
We are observing a frenetic rush to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools in the world of school, when they still present some critical aspects which, especially in this sector where interventions are capable of producing long-term effects, should instead be considered with extreme attention and studied over longer periods of time. It seems important to me to avoid something similar to what happened with the use of digital devices, which have been widely introduced in the education sector over the last twenty years and for which only recently attention has been paid to the problems that such use excessive has created. In this regard, see the final document, published in June 2021, of the fact-finding investigation "On the impact of digital on students, with particular regard to learning processes" carried out by the "Public Education and Cultural Heritage" Commission of the Senate. I therefore set out below some useful elements for a more thoughtful reflection on this topic.
Before starting, it is necessary to remember that the various levels of education (primary, lower secondary, upper secondary, tertiary, professional) have different needs and require different approaches. In this article I therefore focus on the school sector. I talked about the university world here . Students on a master's degree course, who already have basic skills in a certain sector and need to deepen and refine them, can, for example, be asked to critically examine papers produced by AI tools, as an important exercise in verifying the their level of preparation. However, this approach does not seem so relevant to me in the school world, where students are still developing their basic skills. To be able to criticize you must first of all know and know how to do it.
We must then distinguish between the different roles for the use of AI in schools: students, teachers, administrative staff. The last two categories can use these tools to be helped in carrying out repetitive activities (paying attention to aspects relating to the privacy of the data provided to them), whereas for students the exercise, even repeated, of cognitive functions cannot be avoided ( through the use of these tools) under penalty of the inevitable deficiency that would result in the development of their skills. This element is too often forgotten, whereas centuries-old educational experience reminds us that not only physical but also intellectual abilities need constant and repeated exercise in order to be developed. Furthermore, it is necessary to differentiate between the use of technology and training on its scientific principles: this is a distinction that is too often ignored.
AI tools, although they can be enormously useful in rational cognitive work, i.e. that which, starting from objective elements, allows the production of new data that is logically consistent with the starting data and resulting from them (something that – more generally – all computer systems, the "cognitive machines" that I talked about in my book "The information revolution" ), have quite complex operating mechanisms which, in order to be understood, require to be introduced only in the presence of the adequate mathematical and scientific prerequisites that normally the school does not provide. In fact, in Italy we are still behind on the basic scientific skills necessary to successfully face the digital transition (on this topic I invite you to consult the proceedings of the conference held on 19 October at the Accademia dei Lincei on the subject of teaching computing in schools), as recommended in April 2023 by the European Commission of April 2023, COM(2023) 206 final, which urged all member states to include high-quality computing education from the start of compulsory education . The general public has not yet understood what computer science really is, the scientific discipline at the basis of the digital world. AI is a very specialized sector of information technology and if, as with many other sectors of information technology, the tools it produces can also be used by the common man, an understanding of its operating mechanisms must be based on basic knowledge of information technology that ordinary people do not currently possess. Instead, it is as if we were trying to explain differential and integral calculus to those who have never studied mathematics in school.
Last but not least, we need to evaluate the risks and benefits of introducing AI tools into schools. They can bring advantages for some types of users, reducing the fatigue linked to repetitive cognitive-rational activities, but the possible advantages must also be evaluated in light of the potential negative effects: reduction of privacy, spread of misinformation, generation of incorrect texts because based exclusively on statistics (the so-called hallucinations – I talked about it here ), energy consumption and related environmental impact (a query made to an AI-based tool costs tens of times higher than that of a query made to a normal engine research), dehumanization of the teacher-student relationship in which the relational component is an essential aspect .
AI tools can in fact lead to greater productivity for teachers, if through them they can reduce the time dedicated to repetitive activities, thus allowing them to dedicate more time to caring for the most needy students. Among these routine activities we remember, for example: generation of exercise and exam texts, generation of presentations from texts (summarization), generation of texts from fine indexes, providing explanations to simple requests for clarification, etc. Obviously, it is essential to always be aware that they have margins of error which require you to always check what they produce (and, therefore, to know the topic being discussed well) and that the ultimate responsibility always lies with the person.
In general, however, their unsupervised use by students for school activities is to be avoided. Some, for example, suggested that they could use them at home to get an initial assessment of their homework. A bit bizarre as an idea, given that at this point they could also use them to produce the tasks themselves! But above all, in light of the possible hallucinations these tools incur, it is precisely the students who most need this function who are least able to realize any errors they have committed. Obviously students will still have access to them through their smartphones, and therefore prohibitionist temptations will need to be resisted in favor of a work of information and dissemination of knowledge, conducted – for example – through collective use and critical discussion in the class. On the other hand, and this is probably good news, the fact that through them it is possible for anyone to produce a good quality written text will imply a return and greater presence of direct human relationships and oral dialogue .
For some school areas, I am thinking in particular of technical institutes for information technology, the curricula will have to be adapted (and the necessary professional development for teachers developed) to include adequate scientific and technological training in this sector, which will significantly influence the world of work in the near future. Given that those who choose this technical path are generally oriented towards entering the job market directly upon completion, it is right that preparation in this area becomes part of their training.
To conclude, it will be essential that the AI tools used in the world of schools are controlled/supervised by the public sector, in order to avoid the risks associated with exclusively commercial creations, which do not have independent controls on how they were created, with what data they were trained , what security checks they have been subjected to, how they use and manipulate the data provided, what possible discrimination related to gender or other differences they may encounter. These are all aspects that have a high social impact and for this reason require the maximum level of attention. It should also be remembered that this is a technology that is still in an experimental phase and that each of our interactions with it is a contribution to its development provided completely free of charge. It would only be acceptable for a tool owned by the community and whose improvements still benefit everyone.
About twenty years after the arrival of video game consoles and fifteen years after the spread of smartphones in Italy, the Parliamentary Commission cited at the beginning concluded its investigation with these words: «There are physical damages… And there are damages psychological … But what is most worrying is the progressive loss of essential mental faculties, the faculties that for millennia have represented what we summarily call intelligence: the ability to concentrate, memory, critical spirit, adaptability, dialectical ability… They are the effects that the use, which in most cases can only degenerate into abuse, of smartphones and video games produces on young people." I would not want a new Parliamentary Commission to arrive at the same (perhaps more) terrible conclusions in relation to the use of Artificial Intelligence tools in just as much time.
The future of our children is too important to sacrifice it on the altar of productivity and technological progress.
(Interested readers will be able to dialogue with the author, starting from the third day following publication , on this interdisciplinary blog )
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/enrico-nardelli-scuola-ia/ on Sun, 19 Nov 2023 07:59:32 +0000.