Last reviewed 7 November 2023
As the prime minister hosts a global summit to discuss the potential risks of artificial intelligence (AI), the Department for Education (DfE) has unveiled a more positive aspect of the new developments in computers with cognitive skills.
It has said that every teacher in England is set to benefit from new resources powered by AI, supporting them to plan lessons and build classroom quizzes while helping to reduce workloads.
The Government is investing up to £2 million in Oak National Academy, which was established to support teachers with high-quality curriculum resources online, to create new teaching tools using AI. This is, the DfE said, the first step towards providing every teacher with a personalised AI lesson-planning assistant.
Following a pilot of an AI-powered quiz builder and lesson planner, thousands of teachers have already signed up to use these tools, helping them to create individualised content that is tailored to teaching their pupils and based, the DfE noted, on Oak’s high-quality curriculum content.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: “Oak National Academy’s work to harness AI to free up the workload for teachers is a perfect example of the revolutionary benefits this technology can bring. This investment will play a defining role in giving our children and the next generation of students a better education and a brighter future.”
Building on Oak’s commitment to make resources available on Open Government Licence, the project will also provide access to Oak’s curriculum resources for edtech companies experimenting with AI to build from this quality content.
This means that any school, publisher or AI developer can be confident that any content produced through these tools will be accurate, safe, and high-quality, the DfE said.
Later this month, it will publish the results of its recent AI call for evidence (see Consultation launched on role of AI in education).
Launched to gather views from educational professionals on the risks, ethical considerations, and possibilities of AI in education, the results will support the government’s work to identify AI’s potential and ensure it advances in a safe, reasonable, and fair way.