GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — With the rising popularity of artificial intelligence, it's no surprise that AI is making its way into the classroom.
Protect Young Eyes, a company aiming to create a safe digital space for kids, said it can both help and hurt students.
The Founder and CEO said standards must be made to guide schools on how the tool should be used in the learning space.
"I think it is incumbent on school leadership to create an AI school usage policy," said Protect Young Eyes Founder and CEO Chris McKenna. "What are the ways which AI is allowed not much different than acceptable use policies or device policies that exist at the school. This is new technology," he said.
One of the biggest questions surrounding artificial intelligence is its place in schools, according to McKenna.
"It’s a compass that points us. It’s a start. It gets us off that line maybe we are distracted and don’t know exactly what to write or get started with. It gets us going, and that is what it is great for," said Mckenna.
The technology can be great for tasks like research, additional information, documentation and even prompts.
According to Knewton, there was a 62 percent increase in test scores using an AI adaptive learning program.
Artificial intelligence reportedly improved students grades by 30 percent and reduced their anxiety by 20 percent, according to a study conducted by graduate students at the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology.
In a pilot study at Ivy Tech Community College, AI was able to predict a student's final grade with 80% accuracy.
Despite all of this good, it can also be used in a negative light. Cheating is a big concern for schools.
"There are tools out there that the school can use to help identify AI-written content — think AI battling AI. These things exist," said McKenna.
McKenna said that's why believes parameters need to be set so both students and teachers have an understanding of where it can and cannot be used.
"If you just ignore it, or say you will get in trouble when you use it, it’s almost like the ‘Don’t touch the wet paint’ and almost entice students to want to check it out," said McKenna.
Privacy concerns are also a big worry, according to Protect Young Eyes. McKenna is warning parents to be aware of what the technology can do.
"I’m concerned about that use of AI as it pertains to pictures of us, as it pertains to pictures of young people and all of the horrific ways those photos can be used to hurt," said McKenna.
Images can be doctored and voices can be cloned to create fake scenarios that look and sound realistic.
"These sorts of things, when you let the genie out of the bottle like this, and it doesn’t have any controls around it, it is always going to be exploited unless there are restrictions or regulations to pull it in," said McKenna. "These are emerging issues that hopefully our Congress can wrap its mind around to figure out," he said.
On a federal level, U.S. Senator Gary Peters is working to help develop legislation surrounding AI technologies, including the transparency of the government's use of artificial intelligence.
FOX 17 reached out to various schools in West Michigan surrounding any AI policies they may have. We did not immediately hear back.
