We need rules in school, AI can imitate human expression well

The Ministry of Education is planning to implement a project for the digital transformation of school education with a main emphasis on introducing artificial intelligence tools. The initiative is accompanied by alarming conclusions made in a study by DigitalEdu-SU at Sofia University, according to which teachers are not prepared for innovative teaching and students have deficits in digital literacy. At this backdrop, a private school in Sofia is taking confident steps in using this tool.

With Antoaneta Kalenderova, head of one of the private schools in Sofia, we talk about the application of artificial intelligence in the educational process and when it can become a danger.

"Dangerous or not, it is a reality and what depends on us as adults is to use it in school as a tool that saves time, but not replacing human intelligence,“ she says. „Artificial intelligence is ideal for adapting educational material for different students, as some cope faster, while others need a little more practice. In this regard, it is a wonderful tool, as well as for a student who wants to write an essay on a given topic and quickly reach different people and sources that have already discussed this issue. But after the artificial intelligence provides the information, the students must write the essay themselves. Then it is a tool that helps and saves time."

Artificial intelligence can be both a helper and an adversary if we neglect our creative abilities and in the long run lose our ability for critical thinking and analysis.

"It becomes an enemy when it takes over our own thinking," Antoaneta Kalenderova adds. "And also when we use it for tasks that save us time, but subsequently lead to us getting used to it and our mind becoming lazy. That is why the teachers have great responsibility. These are the people who should know this tool well - the different variations of artificial intelligence and how to use them. Then they must develop the rules for its use in school and teach students how to use it in the best possible way."

Another important issue is whose intellectual property is the work created by artificial intelligence – a problem that is increasingly being discussed, Antoaneta Kalenderova points out. At the school she heads, the focus is on "academic integrity" because when you appropriate something as your own intellectual product, it is a blatant lie. "We need to teach children that borrowing an idea from someone else is a great start, if it is your inspiration, but it cannot happen without writing who the author was," she adds.

The International Baccalaureate program offers a fair solution:

"One should indicate the question they asked the artificial intelligence," Antoaneta Kalenderova says. "If it's ‘Write me an essay on...’, this is obviously not your work. But if the question is ‘Tell me about at least three different scientists who have written on the topic,’ this is acceptable because you've saved yourself some time searching, but the work remains yours in the end."

Schools should focus on skills AI cannot replicate