by Dr. Antonis Karampelas

by Dr. Antonis Karampelas, Academy Faculty

“Aconscious citizen is one who places value on being fully human while connecting with a higher purpose; one who values human life and the relationship with all living things, and takes responsibility for transforming skill into action, through ethical decision making, to ultimately improve life and living on the planet.” [1]. Any such future of conscious citizens living in harmony with their environment is hard to imagine without the consideration and proper use of technology. Equally, a data-driven future that would benefit humanity is hard to imagine without the responsible deployment of technology.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is transforming societies and economies, while the pandemic has accelerated the transition to a more digitized future. Artificial intelligence (AI) lies at the center of this transformation, promising the solution to persisting problems of humanity with the help of machines that can mimic aspects of human intelligence. With UNESCO recommending “the development of values and skills for life and work in the AI era” [2], AI teaching and learning needs to be incorporated into K12 curricula. Moreover, any relevant instructional design needs to consider the algorithmic biases, limitations, and ethical dilemmas intrinsic to AI.

Responsible AI is a term used to indicate the principles that are sufficient to achieve human-centered, fair, and safe Artificial Intelligence. OECD recommends five principles for responsible AI [3]:

◉ inclusive growth, sustainable development, and well-being

◉ human-centered values and fairness

◉ transparency and explainability,

◉ robustness, security, and safety

◉ accountability

Key AI actors call for responsible AI as well. Microsoft states that fairness, reliability, safety, privacy, security, inclusiveness, transparency, and accountability principles drive their AI development [4], while Google reports the utilization of responsible AI practices, including fairness, interpretability, privacy, and security [5].

Artificial Intelligence is part of the ACS Athens curriculum since 2018 as a unit of the Academy STEAM course [6-11]. In this course, students become aware of and brainstorm the potential impact of responsible AI. Similar learning opportunities for all three schools are growing over time. In STEAM, there is an intentional progression from the awareness of the impact and limitations of AI to more technical knowledge and skills later in the unit, to reflect the societal importance of this disrupting technology.

In a typical AI unit, students would showcase their learning by answering, among others, the following questions:

◉ What is AI’s impact, limitation, and good use in employment, transportation, healthcare, entertainment, and education?

◉ What could the tasks, technical limitations, and safety concerns associated with a vehicle moving autonomously inside the ACS Athens campus be?

◉ How could a machine learning model trained by a student be developed to be inclusive and fair?

Students exhibit imaginative, creative, and critical thinking while working on their answers to the questions above, working both independently and in groups. Relevant work is showcased in the Figures. More specifically, Figure 1 shows a slide of a group presentation about the impact of AI on healthcare (image credit: https://www.hyro.ai/covid-19); Figure 2 demonstrates a 3D design of a self-driving vehicle in SketchUp; Figure 3 presents an instance of testing an AI model created in Google’s Teachable Machine.

Responsible AI and Conscious Citizenship will remain at the center of the AI unit of the STEAM course for the foreseeable future. Hopefully, the students will turn skills into action in the coming years, thus contributing toward enabling a more sustainable, fair world.

Bibliography [1] Business Partners (2021). Conscious Citizenship: The Role of Education in Creating a Fair and Sustainable Future. American-Hellenic Chamber of Commerce.

[2] UNESCO (2019). Beijing Consensus on Artificial Intelligence and Education. ‘Planning education in the AI era: Lead the leap’ International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Education.

[3] OECD (2022). Recommendation of the Council on Artificial Intelligence. OECD/LEGAL/0449

[4] Microsoft. Microsoft responsible AI principles. URL: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/ai/ our-approach?activetab=pivot1:primaryr5

[5] Google. Responsible AI practices. URL: https://ai.google/ responsibilities/responsible-ai-practices/?category=general [6] Karampelas A. (2021). Why Adopt a K-12 Artificial Intelligence Framework? Ethos, Fall 2021

[7] Karampelas A. (2021). Building a design-centered STEAM course. IGI Global, Handbook of research on K-12 blended and virtual learning through the i2Flex classroom model

[8] Karampelas A. (2020). Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in the STEAM classroom: Analysis of performance data and reflections of international high school students. Hellenic Journal of STEM Education, Vol. 1, No 2

[9] Karampelas A. (2020). Developing and Delivering a High School Artificial Intelligence Course in Blended and Online Learning Environments. Human and Artificial Intelligence for the Society of the Future, European Distance and E-Learning Network (EDEN) Proceedings, 2020 Annual Conference

[10] Karampelas A. (2019). The S.T.E.A.M. course at ACS Athens, Artificial Intelligence, and a Space Experiment. Ethos, Fall 2019

[11] Karampelas A. (2018). Introducing Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Secondary Education. Astrolavos Journal of New Technologies, Hellenic Mathematical Society, Issue 29-30

Figure 1. A slide of a presentation about the AI impact on healthcare (work by Sydney Pina, Taleen Deeb, Michelle Bouri, and Ariadne Daskalaki)

Figure 2. A 3D design of a self-driving vehicle (work by Fanny Mikropandremenou)

Figure 3. Testing an AI model (work by Iuliana Ciubotaru) copy