The Bavarian State Ministry for Education and Cultural Affairs is launching the "AI@school" pilot project. Over the next five years, 15 schools are to experiment specifically with artificial intelligence in education.
Andrei Karpathy, AI expert and longtime AI chief at Tesla, refers to artificial intelligence as "Software 2.0." A new generation of computer technology massively expands the capabilities of computers and thus the technological possibilities of humans.
"Software (1.0) is eating the world, and now AI (Software 2.0) is eating software," Karpathy wrote in 2017.
Looking at today's AI landscape, which has made tremendous strides in the last five years, Karpathy's prediction is well on its way to becoming true.
AI in education will be bigger than the Internet
Fundamental new computing capabilities and humans accessing these capabilities through natural language alone are also transforming educational and work processes. The impact of AI in the educational context may prove to be even greater than that of the Internet. Large AI models are a knowledge resource like the Internet, while at the same time being able to differentially process the knowledge they contain.
This can be seen, for example, when pupils and students generate essays with text AIs and receive at least average or even excellent grades for them.
Following this line of reasoning, the education system faces an even greater challenge than the Internet in integrating AI into its own processes if it is to create educational opportunities that meet the subsequent realities in a society where AI is ubiquitous.
Teaching the advantages and disadvantages of new AI tools and using them responsibly directly in the classroom, as practiced for example by educator Hendrik Haverkamp, coordinator for digitality at a German high school, should be only the minimum of the necessary AI education.
Bavaria launches AI pilot project
The Bavarian State Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs wants to test AI in 15 Bavarian model schools over the next five years. In the "AI@school" program initiated by the ministry, schools and teachers will be able to freely explore the numerous application scenarios of AI in an educational context.
"The model schools are to be deliberately given the necessary freedom to initiate didactic innovation processes and try out new things," the ministry's statement reads. State Secretary of Education Anna Stolz wants to find out "what artificial intelligence is allowed to do and where we have to set limits."
"We are increasing students' learning success and ensuring greater educational equality," says Bertram Brossardt, General Manager of vbw - Vereinigung der Bayerischen Wirtschaft e. V., which supports the project.
Further information on the program is available on the website of the State Ministry (german).
