Stephen Downes

The Department for Education has released new 'safety standards' for AI for students in England. After listing some educational use cases the document then addresses a series of topics (for example: filtering, monitoring and reporting, design and testing, etc.). Each topic is briefly defined, addressed with a set of standards, and placed in the context of relevant legislation. The standards seem designed to cover all possible risks, even if they're theoretical (for example: "Edtech developers and suppliers of products should make every effort to mitigate the potential for cognitive deskilling, or long-term developmental harm to learners"). Ian Grove-Stephensen comments, "The real aim isn't to protect students, but to protect the system... no way are we going to let a mere technological revolution change the way we've been doing things since 1870."