Artificial Intelligence in Education Explored at the Askwith Education Forum

The first Askwith Education Forum of the 2024–25 academic year featured one of the hottest topics in education: the rapid rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on the classroom.

A standing room-only crowd packed Askwith Hall on Thursday as leading voices from the business, policy, and research worlds debated the impacts and changes large language models (LLMs) and generative AI have had on education as tools like ChatGPT alter the learning landscape.

The event began with brief presentations from three distinguished speakers — HGSE Assistant Professor Ying Xu, Assistant Secretary for Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development at the U.S. Department of Education Roberto Rodriguez, and Marta McAlister, who works in Strategy and Operations at Google for Education. The three then joined Academic Dean Martin West in a conversation about their presentations and later fielded a number of questions from the audience.

While the three panelists work with and view artificial intelligence’s development through different lenses, they agreed on several points about its implementation, including that teachers should benefit from — not be replaced by — the AI; and that policies and decisions made now, while the technology continues to evolve, will impact who gets access to these tools and how much benefit — or harm — they can cause.

“AI is already shaping the future of education in ways that everyone involved in the sector, from policymakers and leaders to teachers, students and parents, need to understand,” said West, introducing the panel to start the event. “Technologies don’t shape the future of education on their own. Rather, their impact is mediated by how humans in various roles respond.”

Rodriguez presented guidance from the Department of Education on AI, including its AI and the Future of Teaching and Learning documentation, which was made public in May 2023. McAlister detailed some of the education-specific AI tools Google is developing and how they can help save teachers time, while letting students “visualize their dreams” and work creatively.

Xu, meanwhile, highlighted her own research in AI-assisted learning and data collection, along with some potential ways learning communities can be left behind if bias and inequity are not addressed in the development of these AI tools. Above all, she stressed that artificial intelligence is a tool that, when used correctly, can bring positive change to the educational landscape.

“Neither AI nor other technologies can replace classrooms, educators and the human connections that really cultivate students’ learning and development,” said Xu, who joined the Ed School faculty earlier this year. “The real question is not who or what AI can replace, but how we can leverage other resources we have. So we need to find a way to use AI to amplify the benefits each element in this learning ecosystem brings to students.”

You can watch the entire event in the video above.