It’s hard to tell if something is real or not, especially now AI is on the rise. Back in the good old days it was relatively easy to work out what was real or fake. My auntie’s tatty old fur coat was definitely real mink with a real fox collar. My father’s beloved leather baseball glove was from a real cow.
Nowadays it’s far more difficult to tell. Is the pompom on the woolly hat I was given last Christmas real rabbit fur or artificial? Was the image shared of the queue of refugees lining up really in Britain or was it elsewhere? Was the picture of a peanut butter, macaroni cheesecake on my social media timeline actually something that ever existed or was it created with artificial intelligence?
How do I tell, and more importantly, how do I ensure the young people in my classroom can identify if something online is real from something absolutely not?
An adventure in the classroom
We’re going on a field trip; I tell the wide eyed 7M sitting in my classroom. “I hope you’ve brought your passports as we’re going to an island nation off the coast of Africa”. Close your eyes I say, in our minds we take a most incredible journey as I start to describe the forests of Madagascar. In their imagination these students see the lush and vibrant tapestry of biodiversity, teeming with unique wildlife, towering baobab trees, and intricate layers of flora such as vivid orchids.
They hear the lemurs communicate using shrieks, grunts, barks and trills in the daytime and the bellowing frog chorus and mosquitos buzzing at night. They can almost smell the dank forest floor and sea mist rolling in from the Indian Ocean and feel the brush of the ferns against their skin.
Animals of Madagascar
The class is taking part in a cross curricular art and science project on the animals of Madagascar. They use coloured fine-tip pens to draw an animal of their choice and then do a little research project on their chosen organism to highlight their environmental status. As only 10% of Madagascar’s ancient woodland remains it’s no great surprise that almost all of the animals are threatened and quite a few are critically endangered. But, for once the buzz in the classroom was definitely not from a wasp, or other insect as they share their work.
I can guarantee that neither I nor most of these children will ever visit any country on the African continent, let alone the once paradisiacal island of Madagascar. Using creative thinking is an incredible power of the human mind to imagine a different future. It is vital educators nurture this as much as enabling students to secure academic qualifications, so they have the skills to design & drive change.
Why Aye Aye
The aye aye, a nocturnal primate, can be found only in the forests of Madagascar. They rarely descend from their habitat in the treetops to the forest floor. They spend the day snoozing on branches in nests made of leaves. When darkness falls the creatures forage for food using their incredible long middle-fingers, Pupil G could benefit from this adaptation himself as his finger is always up one of his nostrils.
In addition to eating insects, aye ayes feast on fruit such as mango and coconuts. Big, yellow eyes, to rival the Gruffalo, let it see in the dark. Giant, sensitive ears help the animal detect prey. And a long, bushy tail allows the aye-aye to balance as it scampers along tree branches. Unfortunately, some local legends tell tales that the aye-ayes bring bad luck, which isn’t exactly great PR. Imagine being blamed for everything that goes wrong just because you look a bit odd.
The 6th mass extinction has already started and aye ayes, along with thousands of other specials of incredible organisms, are now endangered. These primates evolved 34–60 million years ago, long before modern humans, but unfortunately, we’re the ones causing deforestation which threatens the island’s unique plant and animal species. Over the next decade or so, we might even have to say bye bye to the aye aye.
Why Aye AI
The world is full of wicked problems so it’s increasingly challenging to prepare young people for the future as we really don’t know how bad it’s actually going to get. With all of the advances in technology it would be great to think artificial intelligence was going to help save us. However, from the chalkface I’m really not sure this is the answer to our problems.
I like getting back to basics with my students but there is a growing temptation for them to ask Bing or Chat GPT. It feels like a dark force, which is out of my control, is becoming increasingly powerful with the result that I’m becoming a plagiarism identification device rather than a teacher.
AI can definitely help save time. Like most teachers, although I’ve had no formal training, I’ve used it myself on many occasions such as creating an image or suggesting topics to include in a piece of writing. You can even ask AI how to spot if a piece of writing is done by AI (Chat GPT tells me this includes inconsistent style or voice, repetitive writing, keyword stuffing, factual errors and logical inconsistencies and software analysis). Hubster would agree with the factual errors, he was once given utterly fictitious peer reviewed articles when he was trying to complete a literature review.
Damnation or salvation: issues with AI
However, there is a serious issue with AI, it has a huge environmental impact. Generating a single AI image can use up to 0.3 kWh – the same amount of energy as using a plasma TV per hour. AI models require enormous data centres that threaten goals to reduce carbon emissions and use millions of litres of freshwater in their cooling systems.
By 2030 its estimated AI data centres will annually consume 35 gigawatts of power, up from 17 gigawatts in 2023. Then there is the mineral extraction needed to build this computational infrastructure, let alone dealing with the recycling or disposal of the electronic waste it will produce.
AI platforms
Most teachers have received no training on the use of AI by students, yet as soon as they open up a search engine, young people see the links to AI platforms that can make their life easier (remember the Pupil R’s report on Why Apple Trees have Flowers – well he definitely isn’t alone). I am really concerned that AI will crush creative and critical thinking as easily as a Tesla would squash a grape.
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt says it’s time for us to fully invest in AI infrastructure because climate goals are too lofty to reach anyway. What does this incredibly wealthy man have to lose? He probably has a bunker and might well be on Elon Musk’s list of VIPs who could actually get off planet if the opportunity arises.
Schmidt is just one of a growing chorus of tech billionaires admitting they’ll sacrifice the climate on the altar of their AI ambitions. I imagine a life a little like the one depicted in the PIXAR children’s film, WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load-Lifter Earth-Class) where humans have left our home planet due to severe pollution and live on a spaceship, where they’ve become sedentary, obese and dependent on robots.
The frenemy
I admit AI is both a villain and a hero in education and technology. It might well solve some of the issues we face but the reality is that it is unlikely to save the aye aye and I’m really not sure it will save humanity, bar a few incredibly wealthy folk into space in their penis-shaped rockets to float around whilst looking like B-list actors in WALL-E.
As I definitely won’t be on the list of invited space explorers, in a slightly sadistic kind of way, I wonder if AI can help them get through the increasing barrier of space junk. The thousands of satellites in orbit around Earth have the potential to wreak havoc in coming decades. Humans haven’t just polluted Earth but all the layers of the atmosphere into space. I just hope that we don’t succeed in colonising other planets, the history of human colonisation here already leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.
Satellites
There are an estimated 170 million pieces of space junk in low orbits around Earth, and the amount is growing. By 2030, estimates suggest there will be nearly 60,000 satellites in orbit around our planet. Look up (rather than ‘Don’t Look Up’) on a clear night and you may see a train of bright dots across the sky. These are part of SpaceX’s “megaconstellation” of satellites, Starlink, which offers increased access to broadband communication across the world. I suppose at least their digital signals might let me watch a documentary about the endangered aye aye before they all die.
Note to self: Before the Open Evening speak to Mrs M the Art teacher about putting up the display of Madagascan animals and organise a fundraiser to protect them. The philanthropic power of young change makers might not get them to the moon and back but it could help them to feel joy on Earth.
