Focusing on Artificial Intelligence (AI), UNESCO wants to offer a glimpse of varied dimensions and challenges regarding the current and future use of AI in Indian educational setting. On September 20, UNESCO Delhi office released the State of the Education Report for India 2022: Artificial Intelligence in Education, the fourth in the series that began in 2019 under a UNESCO mandate for South Asian countries to provide evidence-based policies in education.
As one of the goals of the 17 SDGs is inclusive and equitable quality education, AI and AI powered solutions have the potential of helping in achieving this goal, so it is how UNESCO got interested in preparing this report in the first place.
The report using extensive desk research, expert interviews, statistical secondary sources is focused on outlining opportunities and challenges of AI in India. The report has tried to illustrate the concept of AI in a simpler language so that it can be understood by ordinary people. It carries case studies about AI literacy from various projects in schools and HEIs. Most of the school projects included in the report are from Intel-CBSE AI collaboration wherein Intel has facilitated creation of AI student community (AISC), Intel under this collaboration runs five training modules of 112 hr duration.
The report also emphasis the ethical challenges posed by AI in terms of data privacy and ownership as well biases and transparency. The report has made ten recommendations to make AI work in the policy framework. These are:
1. Consider the ethics of AI in education as an utmost priority
2. Rapidly provide an overall regulatory framework for AI in education
3. Create effective public private partnerships
4. Ensure all teachers ans students have access to the latest technologies
5. Expand AI literacy efforts
6. Attempt to correct algorithmic biases and the resulting discrimination
7. Improve public trust in AI
8. Request the private sector to better involve student s and educationists in developing AI products
9. Place ownership of data with students
10. Embrace the versatility of Artificial Intelligence in Education Systems.
Conducting the launch proceeding, Eric Falt, Director , UNESCO Delhi office, UNECOโs aim is to advocate and provide guidance towards responsible and human centred approach of AI in India. โWe want to emphasize that in the overall there is a need of keeping ethics of human rights, democratic rights, digital access in mind while ensuring equal development in education, โhe added.
NivrutiRai, country head, Intel India, in her remarks said that historically it has always been the partnership of the government, academics and industry together that has driven an innovation and allowed scaling up in presence of an enabling framework. โEvery 100 years there is revolution. We have moved from automation and robotics to virtual world. We are already consuming AI. Now is the time for unique AI solutions to tackle problems and bigger challenges. Education is one area, โ she added.
Several school students from AISC exhibited interesting AI projects during launch event.
