PROGRAMME 9

DEVELOP SCOTLAND'S APPROACH TO AI AND CHILDREN

An image made up of various different coloured shapes. These shapes sit in cut out shapes in the ground. Some have been removed and others sitting in their negative space. There is a purple cloud, green worm, lime green eye and orange flower shapes.

image credit: Vincent Schwenk / DeepMind / UNSPLASH

 
 

Strategy Actions

2.10 Expand international collaboration on AI and children

 

Year 2 Progress

The panel session on Why it is Important to Engage Children in AI at the Scottish AI Summit 2022 featuring speakers from The Children’s Parliament, The Alan Turing Institute and UNICEF was a great launch point for a two-and-a-half-year programme on engaging the children of Scotland in AI and how it is being used and developed in Scotland.  

Phase 1 of the programme kicked off in September 2022 as a collaboration between the Scottish AI Alliance, The Alan Turing Institute and the Children’s Parliament. This initial phase will explore children’s rights in AI. The project worked with Primary 5 - Primary 7 classes (9-11 year olds) from four schools across Scotland in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Doune and the Shetlands. From initial in person workshops in September and October 2022 at the schools with whole classes, a core group of thirteen investigators from the schools were formed. Regular online sessions with this group continued throughout October 2022 to February 2023. Whole class missions were set for the schools in between these online sessions. The investigators will come together for a residential trip in March to coincide with the Scottish AI Summit where they will participate in a plenary session, deliver a workshop to delegates and exhibit their creative outputs.  

Phase 2 will begin in April 2023 and will build on findings in Phase 1 and will bring in more stakeholders. We are hoping that our children investigators will name the programme at the end of Phase 1.  

In addition to the programme, the schools competition was launched in November 2022. Open to all schools in Scotland in three categories – P5-7 (9-11 year olds), S1-3 (11-14 year olds), S4+ (14 years +) - Me, Myself and AI invites children to investigate how AI impacts their lives and communicate this through a variety of ways. Partnering with The National Robotarium, the overall winning entry will win a trip to the National Robotarium building. Winning entries in each category will also win prize bundles for their class/club. The winning submissions will be exhibited at the Scottish AI Summit. Over 50 schools from across Scotland registered for the competition.