UN calls for strict rules on use of AI tools in schools

The United Nations (UN) on Thursday (September 7) called for strict rules on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT in classrooms, including limiting their use to older children. UNESCO warned in a guidance that public authorities were not ready to deal with the ethical issues of rolling out generative AI (GenAI) programmes in schools.

UNESCO said that relying on such programmes rather than human teachers could affect a child's emotional well-being and leave them vulnerable to manipulation. The UN education body's Director General Audrey Azoulay said that GenAI could be a tremendous opportunity for human development, but it could also cause harm and prejudice.

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"It cannot be integrated into education without public engagement, and the necessary safeguards and regulations from governments," Azoulay added.

'Schools embracing radically unfamiliar technology'

Speaking to the news agency Reuters on Thursday, UNESCO's Assistant Director-General for Education Stefania Giannini said that people were struggling to align the speed of transformation of the education system to the speed of the change in technological progress and advancement in these machine learning methods.

"In many cases, governments and schools are embracing a radically unfamiliar technology that even leading technologists do not claim to understand," Giannini added.

GenAI programmes, which became prominent late last year, have sparked fears of plagiarism and cheating in schools and universities. UNESCO said on Thursday that providers of such programmes should be held responsible "for ensuring adherence to core values and lawful purposes, respecting intellectual property, and upholding ethical practices, while also preventing the spread of disinformation and hate speech."

The UN education body also called for the prevention of GenAI where it would deprive learners of opportunities to develop cognitive abilities and social skills through observations of the real world.

UNESCO's guidance stopped short of recommending a minimum age for school students but pointed out that ChatGPT had a lower age limit of 13. "Many commentators understand this threshold to be too young and have advocated for legislation to raise the age to 16," it added.

(With input from agencies)

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