KU professor proposes 'AI Bill of Rights in Education'

LAWRENCE (KSNT) – A University of Kansas (KU) professor is sparking conversations on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) by proposing some rules for guiding the use of the groundbreaking technology.

KU said Kathryn Conrad, a professor of English at the university, is weighing in on a current hot topic: the use of AI in education. Conrad’s recently published work, “Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights in Education” in the journal “Critical AI” focuses on the widely available AI chatbot ChatGPT and its potential impact for educators.

ChatGPT is causing a stir among educators and business leaders across the country questions are raised on how the technology will change life in the classroom and the job market. Developed by OpenAI and released to the public in 2022, ChatGPT is part of a new generation of AI systems developed in connection with Microsoft that can accomplish tasks ranging from answering questions on history to writing computer code.

AI is also a leading cause behind the recent strike among Hollywood actors and writers. The possible use of AI-generated scripts in film industry prompted groups like the Writers Guild of America to seek safeguards concerning the use of such scripts in the future.

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KU said Conrad came to the conclusion that universities should take steps toward calling for the responsible use of generative AI. While initial worries on AI programs like ChatGPT revolved around its ability to solve problems and write papers for students, Conrad’s work delves into other issues as well.

“What I’ve been working on, from both a scholarly and pedagogical standpoint, is critical AI literacy,” Conrad said. “And that means knowing something about how generative AI works as well as the ethics of these models, including the labor and copyright issues they entail, and some of the privacy and surveillance concerns that they raise.”

Rather than calling for programs like ChatGPT to be banned, Conrad takes a different stance. She calls for teaching students how to properly use AI in a university context.

“I like to say that for education, AI answered a question that no one was asking,” Conrad said. “Nobody in education asked for chatbots. But ChatGPT and other models came down to us anyway. And, as I mention in the article, they came down from people who are not concerned primarily with education.”

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For her research, Conrad extended an earlier work released by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in 2022 titled, “Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights,” according to KU. Conrad focused on the education side of the AI conversation with the following rights suggested to students and educators:

Notice “when an instructor or institution is using an automated process to assess your assignments”

KU said Conrad places emphasis on understanding what the technology can and cannot do. While ChatGPT can write an essay or a legal brief, it is not always factual or accurate with the chatbot fabricating responses in some situations.

“It’s an important part of critical AI literacy to explain to users — students in this case, but also faculty — that there is never a guarantee that the output is going to be right,” Conrad said. “It is designed to be plausible, which is a different thing entirely.”

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While Conrad says educators can’t ignore AI, she says universities can help pave the way to a better future with offering helpful recommendations to students on best practices with the new technology, according to KU.

“We have the potential to develop technologies that are trained on ethically obtained datasets, that have privacy protections built in, that are ethically deployed. This is a place we could potentially lead,” Conrad said.

KU professor proposes ‘AI Bill of Rights in Education’

1 September 2023

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