Every year it seems like there’s a new technology that’s going to change everything. From bitcoin to virtual reality headsets, from google glasses to quantum computers, the one thing they have in common is intense hype. And hyperbolic claims not grounded in evidence. The two things they have in common are intense hype and hyperbolic claims. And a passionate fan base. The three things they have in common are intense hype, hyperbolic claims, and a passionate fan base. Wait, I’ll come in again.
If this sounds like a Monty Python sketch, that’s because the hype from the tech industry is really that farcical. The difference between tech hype and other marketing hype is that we want to believe, and we don’t know enough about tech to be rationally sceptical. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if technology could solve climate change, cure cancer, stop wars, and end poverty? Wouldn’t it be fabulous if we got in at the ground floor of the next tech miracle and made our fortune? It’s the same magical thinking that keeps us buying lottery tickets. What if this time it’s the one???
The world of Artificial Intelligence is currently at the peak of the hype cycle. The excitement is intense. The cautious voices are drowned out by the frenzy of the rabid fans. And the technology is so opaque and complicated that most of us are not in a position to question the wild claims. When the CEO of Google himself, Sundar Pichai, claims that the Google AI is displaying emergent behaviour and potentially becoming sentient, who are we to argue?
Yet argue we must. More to the point, we must educate ourselves, and our children, to be in a position to be rationally sceptical of technological hype. As a society, we need some inoculation against magical technological thinking.
But where do teachers and schools start? Without a background in Artificial Intelligence, how can we expect teachers to inoculate our kids against the hype? How do we teach them to be more savvy and compassionate consumers and makers of technology?
That’s where we come in. Laura Summers from Debias AI and Dr Linda McIver from the Australian Data Science Education Institute are putting together a teacher’s guide to AI, but we need your help to make sure the guide is exactly what you need. To that end we’ve put together a survey. We would love it if you could fill it out and share it with all of your teacher friends.
Find the survey at tinyurl.com/ai-teacher-survey and tell us what you need.
You can also leave your email, to make sure you’ll be the first to know when the guide is released.
