Artificial Intelligence Day Curriculum Meets Moment | MIT News

MIT Responsible AI for Social Empowerment and Education (RAISE) recently celebrated its second annual AI Day with two flagship local events. Edward M. of the US Senate in Boston. The Kennedy Institute hosted an event focused on human rights and data policy that went global. Dearborn STEM Academy in Roxbury, Massachusetts, hosted a student workshop in collaboration with Amazon Future Engineer. With more than 8,000 registrations in 2023 in all 50 US states and 108 countries, participation in AI Day has doubled since its first year.

Day of AI is a free curriculum of lessons and hands-on activities designed to teach children of all ages and backgrounds the basics and responsible use of artificial intelligence, created by MIT RAISE researchers. This year, resources were available for teachers to access whenever and wherever they chose. The curriculum included five new modules to address timely topics such as ChatGPT in school, machine learning, AI and social media, data science and me, and more. Modules for primary school students have also been introduced in collaboration with the International Society for Educational Technology. Teachers around the world shared photos, videos and stories of their students’ engagement, expressing their excitement and relief at the accessible lessons.

Professor Cynthia Breazeale, Director of RAISE, Dean of Digital Learning at MIT, and Head of the Personal Robots Research Group at the MIT Media Lab, said: “This has been a year of extraordinary advances in AI, and with it comes necessary conversations and concerns about , if who. And what is this technology for? With AI Day events, we want to celebrate the educators and students who are working to make sure AI is for everyone.

Reflecting community values ​​and protecting digital citizens

MIT President Sally Kornbluth welcomed students from Warren Prescott High School and New Mission High School to the Edward M. at the Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate. Kornbluth reflected on the exciting potential of artificial intelligence, along with the ethical considerations that society must be responsible for.

“AI has the potential to do all sorts of fantastic things, including driving cars, helping us tackle the climate crisis, improving healthcare and creating applications we can’t yet imagine. But what we have to make sure that it doesn’t lead to is harm to individuals, to communities, to us — to society as a whole,” he said.

This theme resonated with every speaker at the event, whose work spanned the education, government and business sectors. Yo Deshpande, a public realm technologist, and Michael Lawrence Evans, director of the New Urban Mechanics Program at the Boston Mayor’s Office, shared how Boston is thinking about using AI to improve city life in “fair, affordable, and enjoyable” ways. Deshpande said: “We have an opportunity to explore not only how AI works, but how using AI can align with our values, how we want to be in the world and how we want to be in our society.”

Adam L’Italien, chief innovation officer of Liberty Mutual Insurance (one of AI’s founding sponsors), compared our current moment with AI technologies to the early days of personal computers and the Internet. “The impact of emerging technologies can accelerate progress in the world and in one’s own life,” L’Italien said, acknowledging that the AI ​​development process must be inclusive and mitigate bias.

Human policy towards artificial intelligence

So how does society address these human rights concerns about artificial intelligence? Mark Aydinoff ’21, former head of science and technology policy at the White House, led a discussion on how government policies can affect the parameters of technology development and use, such as the AI ​​Bill of Rights plan. Aydinoff said, “Working on building the world you want to see is much more difficult than building a technical AI system… How do you work with other people and create a collective vision of what we want to do? Students at Warren Prescott High School described how artificial intelligence could be used to solve problems that humans could not. But they also shared their concerns that AI could affect data privacy, learning disabilities, social media addiction, job displacement and advocacy.

In a US Senate mock trial activity created by MIT Media Lab PhD student Daniela DiPaola, high school students explored what rights could be violated by artificial intelligence in schools, hospitals, law enforcement, and corporations. Meanwhile, New Mission High School students explored the ideas behind bill S.2314, the Social Media Addiction Reduction Technology (SMART) Act, in an activity created by Rachel Walker, assistant research assistant for the Personal Robotics Group, and Matt Taylor. in the media lab. They discussed what level of control could or should be put in place at the parental, educational and governmental levels to reduce the risk of Internet addiction.

“Alexa, how do I program AI?”

At Dearborn STEM Academy, an Amazon Future Engineer helped students run the Intro to Voice AI learning module in real time. Students used MIT App Inventor to code basic commands for Alexa. In an interview with WCVB, Principal Darlene Marcano said, “It’s important to give our students as many different experiences as possible. Students who participate are destined to become future computer scientists and engineers.

Breazeal told the Dearborn students, “We want you to have an informed voice about how you want AI to be used in society. We want you to feel empowered, that you can create the world. You can do things with AI to help create a better world and a better society. “

Also joining the event were Rohit Prasad ’08, senior vice president and chief Alexa scientist at Amazon, and Victor Reynoso ’97, Amazon’s global director of philanthropic education initiatives. “Amazon and MIT share a commitment to helping students discover a world of possibilities through STEM and AI education,” Reynoso said. “There’s a lot of excitement around the technology revolution with generative artificial intelligence and big language models, so we’re excited to help students navigate the careers of the future and the pathways available to them.” To highlight their continued investment in the local community and school program, Amazon has donated a $25,000 Innovation and Early College Pathways Program grant to the Boston Public School System.

AI day below

Not only was the AI ​​Day program widely adopted around the world, Australian educators were inspired to adapt their own regionally specific curriculum. According to the National Center for Artificial Intelligence at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), an Australian government agency and partner of Australia Day’s AI Australia project, around 161,000 AI professionals will be needed in Australia by 2030. CSIRO has worked with the University of New South Wales to develop additional educational resources on AI ethics and machine learning. AI Day Australia this year reached 85,000 students in more than 400 secondary schools, sparking curiosity in the next generation of AI experts.

Interest in artificial intelligence is accelerating as fast as technology is advancing. AI Day offers a unique opportunity for K-12 students to shape our world’s digital future and their own.

“I hope that some of you will decide to participate in this larger effort to help us find the best possible answers to the questions that AI raises,” Kornbluth told Edward M. Kennedy Institute students. “We’re counting on you, the next generation, to understand how AI works and help us make sure it’s for everyone.”