The Wyoming Education Departments Plans to Use AI in the Classroom - What could possibly go wrong?

by Wyoming Liberty Group

The Wyoming Education Department is planning to incorporate AI in the schools.

What could possibly go wrong?

(That was said in jest, just in case you missed it, or you're too young to remember Hal, the artificial intelligence character in the classic movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. ((Google it.)))

Let's back up a sec. This is what the state education department—otherwise known as the WDE—recently said that it wants our local school districts to do:

"The WDE is committed to leading the state in AI education and preparing the next generation of learners and leaders for a future that is built with, and alongside AI," according to the state's guidance resource.

Hm.

The state wants the local schools to devise their own AI policies for the classroom and for teachers to instruct kids about how to use artificial intelligence ethically. (Is that a contradiction in terms?)

The state agency professes that one of the benefits of AI is to give teachers more time to do other important things, like teaching. They say AI can help students reach educational goals and promote AI literacy, whatever that means.

The state manual also notes that not all AI is "a source of unquestionable, factual information."

Well, that's good to know. (More jest.)

The state's guidance categorizes AI into three areas: AI-free; AI-assisted; and AI-empowered. The terms are relatively self-explanatory (and who knows why they needed categories?)

AI-free, naturally, means that students do their work without help from AI. (Isn't that generally the point?)

AI-empowered, on the other hand, means that students use AI to do their work. The state agency notes that students are still responsible for overseeing the work as well as fairness and accuracy. (Not sure how that works, if AI is doing all the work, but …)

Perhaps the only thing that makes immediate sense is that the school system says that local districts need to make adjustments to their AI policies, depending on the developments of AI, even though that too seems self-evident.

The state education department left out at least one thing for its resource guide: an egregious example of AI gone wrong recently in the Cody Enterprise, the newspaper founded in 1899 by Buffalo Bill (who may be turning over in his grave at this very moment.)

A reporter there was caught using an AI tool to create fake quotes and to help him write fake articles for the newspaper. Among the folks that AI made up quotes for: Gov. Mark Gordon. The wayward reporter promptly resigned and the paper issued a public apology.

At first, the reporter said he wasn't sure where the questionable quotes came from. Then he said he would apologize and correct any mistaken quotes. "Obviously I've never intentionally tried to misquote anybody," the reporter told another reporter from a different paper, who discovered the AI problem.

Ultimately, the newspaper checked it out and removed the fake quotes from its website. The AI-assisted articles were amended with a note from the editor.

"Artificial Intelligence was allowed to misquote individuals in several of our articles … We regret the lack of oversight," the Cody Enterprise said in a correction that it recently printed.

The paper went further in an editorial in which the editor wrote, "I failed to catch it. And it is my job, dear reader, to see that the facts in your paper are facts. It matters not that the false quotes were the apparent error of a hurried rookie reporter that trusted AI. It was my job." He also apologized for AI putting "words that were never spoken into stories."

And then the publisher of the newspaper offered this on its website: "AI isn't all it's cracked up to be, especially in our line of work. We take extreme pride in the content that we put out to our community and we trust that the individuals hired to accurately write these stories are honest in gathering their information. So, you can imagine our surprise when we learned otherwise."

Suffice it to say, the Cody Enterprise says it now has a way to catch AI stuff.

Perhaps the most telling part of that AI brouhaha was what the publisher said. That "AI isn't all it's cracked up to be."

It is the newfangled thing, and, sure, people are excited about the potential of AI. But let's not put the proverbial horse before the cart, especially when it comes to teaching our children. Let's be prudent and not rush headlong into AI until we've understood the ramifications better, especially if AI is applied to our school districts.

Because, let's face it, if a professional newspaper reporter, who is paid to do a credible job, fails by improperly using AI, what can we expect from kids who may not know better?