Policy & Procurement of AI

Image from Pixabay

With ISTELive wrapping up in Philadelphia this week, AI in our schools was a dominant theme from the main-stage keynotes through the multitude of breakout sessions throughout the convention center. But with a new school year around the corner, we’re starting to see edtech-specific offerings more and more since Khanmigo’s quizzical launch some months back. Or the recent announcement of personalized learning management platforms like Reinforz and AI/ML course updates to Coursera. The EdTech solutions providers are devising and deploying new go to market models and discerning stewards of school technology budgets could use updated support.

Fortunately, for the field, ISTE and Project Unicorn have recently revised and released their prior 2019 title, Better EdTech Buying: A Practical Guide. The publication features new perspectives gleaned from the past few years with so much rapid edtech evolution, and sets the stage for what is starting to emerge as educators continue to grapple with the AI at the tip of the spear for emerging technology. Concurrently, ISTE released Bringing AI to School: Tips for School Leaders, a new guide for administrators and enterprising teachers to organize themselves ahead of upcoming shifts in product roadmaps from known and new solutions providers. Finally, ISTE/ASCD CEO Richard Culatta announced their own ChatBot for schools, Stretch.

Yet Big Tech keeps making headlines, too, with new AI models being released (or stalled). On that note…is this officially a pattern that confirms the need for effective policy frameworks to protect the public from powerful and ambitious engineers and their creations? Or is it realistic to expect self-regulation when dangerous applications of their tech surface? With Meta’s leaked LLM earlier this year, it’s not as though their track record is reliable for safeguarding developing and under-tested technology already sitting on hundreds if not thousands of PCs owned by those that were able to download it.

On the exciting side of innovation, there are more advances applying AI to healthcare, to economic forecasts as a result of job replacement by automation (not a new trend for business leaders). In the links below, you’ll find such examples from recent edtech solution press releases, policy updates, and a few stories about AI breakthroughs in various sectors.

EdTech Headlines

• ISTELive 23 Recap: Exciting news, energizing sessions | Microsoft EDU

• ISTELive 23: Teaching in 2 Realms — Speak AI, but Stay Human

• In Classrooms, Teachers Put A.I. Tutoring Bots to the Test - The New York Times

• A Tale of Two Hackathons - by Tony Wan - edtech after dark

• From Schools To Colleges To Edtech Platforms, Here’s How AI Is Revolutionising Education - Forbes India

• Figma’s Chromebook program is now available to all US school students - The Verge

• Only a matter of time before AI chatbots are teaching kids in school

AI in Regulatory News

• EU advances new data rules as it cracks down on big tech

• Responsible AI Institute Forms Inaugural Responsible Generative AI Consortium

AI’s impact on Business & Economic Forecasts

• OpenAI Stole ‘Massive Amounts of Personal Data’ to Train ChatGPT: Suit

• Sam Altman is AI’s compelling preacher. The world is ready to bow down.

• ‘The future is bleak’: how AI concerns are shaping graduate career choices | Graduate careers | The Guardian

• Next-gen content farms are using AI-generated text to spin up junk websites | MIT Technology Review

Sector Breakthroughs

• Insilico Medicine’s A.I. Drug Discovery Progress

• When The AI Is More Compassionate Than The Doctor