The EdSafe AI Alliance, an initiative to develop criteria and standards for measuring the quality of new artificial intelligence in educational technologies around the world, was launched last month.
The organizers called on researchers and experts in this field to engage in an open global process that will help shape the future of trustworthy and reliable EdTech tools.
The Edsafe Alliance
The Alliance founded DXtera, a non-profit educational consortium based in the United States with members in six countries and a global AI for the education company Riiid. About 50 other groups are included, including Carnegie Learning, the German Education Alliance, ETS, GSV Ventures, Digital Promise, Education Alliance Finland, and UNESCO.
“More are coming in every day,” said Dale Allen, president of the DXtera Institute.
“We are looking for direct engagement from any interested party,” he told University World News. DXtera will manage the cross-sector alliance, and is looking for universities and a range of public or private sector organizations and associations to “help create the shared future we all desire for equitable edtech tools”.
The main objectives are to increase public confidence — especially teachers, students, and parents — in artificial intelligence in the education sector and to establish voluntary criteria and standards for measuring the quality and reliability of new artificial intelligence for educational technologies.
The EdSAFE AI Alliance launched a global conference on edtech, organized by Arizona State University (ASU) and the Global Silicon Valley (GSV) investment platform. The ASU-GSV summit was held practically and physically in San Diego, California, from August 9 to 11.
It hopes to encompass four critical SAFE categories — Safety (security, privacy), Accountability (defining stakeholder responsibilities), Fairness (equity, ethics, non-bias), and Efficacy (qualified improved learning outcomes) — according to a launch statement.
Jim Larimore, RiIId’s chief executive of Learning Equality, Heads the alliance formation and the company leads the alliance together. He told World News University that the responses were encouraging and had allowed the union to start with the strong support and participation of seven countries. and schools. “In the days since the launch, the biggest thing for me has been the confidence that there are organizations that have seen the same need and want to be involved.”
Edsafe Schedule
It is to be hoped that by 2022 a set of benchmarks and standards will be established and regularly updated for products with artificial intelligence in education. As no government is formally involved, there is a voluntary compliance system. First comes the planning phase, where people and groups are involved.
“In November, we should publicly release some sort of roadmap,” Allen said. Set up working groups with activities, goals, and deadlines. The idea is that part of the framework and the first benchmarks and standards will be published next year.
“There will continue to be an organic process thereafter.” It is envisaged that there will be quarterly updates for the education community and the public, “about the deliverables and what is coming, what has come and what is measurable already”.
“It is hoped that third parties, such as testing agencies, will use the standards and people will apply either to the alliance or directly to those entities to verify that their tool meets all of the specifications that evolve and emerge. The seal of approval will be provided at that point to show up on their product,” Allen explained.
Background and approach
DXtera is a non-profit membership organization that through shared communities of practice builds solutions to tackle common complex education barriers.
This led over the last two years to a community that has grown around a need identified by educators for better AI tools to help colleges, universities, and education agencies to address inequities and inefficiencies in education. Riiid has been an active partner in this phase, along with some 25 colleges, universities, companies, and ministries of education.
Conclusion
A law or a set of guidelines set for education has not always been beneficial for the students in the case of traditional methods of learning and teaching. Keeping that in mind it is not really sure how this will benefit the students in terms of knowledge bearing. Also, it should not be forgotten that building a bias varies from person to person.
But, setting up such guidelines definitely saves the students time and frustration which might be created without understanding the sentimental attachment some students might feel towards certain topics while in class.
A set of rules benefits the R&D department when it comes to researching new materials or updates that need to be made in the curriculum.
