Artificial intelligence (AI) is being hailed as the latest technology to put the UK’s public services on a new path to modernisation. While the jury is still out on how quickly this can happen, there is no denying that the public sector in the UK is in need of digital transformation.
Since the announcement of the UK’s AI Opportunities Action Plan at the beginning of this year, there have been a range of organisations and industries set to benefit from enhanced AI investment. It’s become clear that the education sector is no exception, from speeding up marking to an AI assistant to support teachers with workloads. For teachers struggling with workload, AI could improve their working life and change the way children are taught for the better.
However, as the role of AI in classrooms expands, ensuring inclusive, ethical, and safe AI adoption is essential to help prevent any bias, protect student privacy, and therefore create equal learning opportunities for all.
The promise of AI for teachers and students
With educators under more stress than ever, AI has the potential to completely revolutionise the education sector by automating certain tasks such as creating educational resources, lesson and curriculum planning or even completing strenuous admin tasks to help save teachers’ time. For students with disabilities, AI-powered tools can also provide speech-to-text features, real-time translation, and other accessibility features to ensure a more inclusive learning environment.
But some teachers are still dubious.
In a recent article, the National Education Union’s (NEU) general secretary, Daniel Kebede, told Sky News that while there were positive aspects to the rollout of AI, he felt there had “not been any meaningful discussion with the sector yet” and the Department for Education (DfE) was “running away with itself.” Many educators feel in the dark when it comes to how AI will be implemented in their daily work, adding to their concerns.
Addressing concerns and ensuring inclusivity
One of the biggest concerns currently surrounding the implementation of AI in schools is the risk of bias. If AI models are trained on data that reflects any form of societal inequalities, the AI systems could reinforce them.
For example, if a teacher is creating a lesson plan for their class using an AI education tool that generates lesson content, this content could unintentionally favour certain dialects, cultural references, or even historical perspectives, leading to an unequal learning experience for students. It’s important
To support with this, at the beginning of this year, the UK Government introduced its Generative AI: Product Safety Expectations, a framework intended to outline the capabilities and features that generative artificial intelligence (AI) products and systems should meet to be considered safe for users in educational settings.
These guidelines cover everything from exposure to harmful content to issues such as privacy and governance. They will be instrumental in supporting teachers, students and parents in helping ensure AI safety across the board.
Keeping inclusive AI at the forefront
I feel strongly about this approach to AI development, especially because it aligns with many of the themes outlined in AI by Design, which reflects four key principles for developing AI.
AI by Design focuses on building trust through transparency, helping ensure fairness, and embedding security from the ground up. It’s not just about creating powerful AI tools; it’s about creating tools that are built to last, with the safety and privacy of users always in mind.
Both AI by Design and the Generative AI: Product Safety Expectations framework highlight the need to avoid biased AI-generated content, helping ensure students are treated equally regardless of their background. They also emphasise the importance of strong data protection measures in educational AI tools to help ensure privacy and security are also prioritised.
The future of inclusive AI in education
It’s clear that we’ll see the role of AI in education continue to develop, especially as we are now seeing emerging technologies like AI tutors, intelligent assessments and virtual learning assistants that will further personalise education, making learning more accessible and inclusive to more students.
However, as AI technology continues to advance, it’s crucial that inclusive AI goes hand in hand with these advancements to ensure it remains a top priority. Ethical AI practices must be embedded throughout every stage of development, ensuring that future AI tools prioritise diversity, fairness, and accessibility. Schools should also receive the appropriate guidance on implementing AI responsibly, ensuring a balance is struck between innovation and ethical considerations.
The UK’s proactive approach to AI in education has definitely set the precedent globally and I’m sure we will see more countries follow suit.
Sascha Giese
Sasha Giese is Global Tech Evangelist, Observability, at SolarWinds, a leading provider of simple, powerful and secure solutions designed to help organisations accelerate business transformation in today’s hybrid IT world.
