Survey: 72% of young people believe that artificial intelligence should be taught at school

The majority of young people surveyed in Latvia believe that artificial intelligence (AI) skills should be learned at school, according to the “Samsung” survey “Solve for Tomorrow”. From the perspective of young people, artificial intelligence is extremely useful in learning technology, natural sciences and languages. 60% of young people believe that AI skills will be needed in all jobs in the future, and a fifth would even trust it to choose their future career.

72% of young people aged 15 to 19 surveyed believe that artificial intelligence (AI) skills should be taught at school, and would also like to have a lesson on AI at school or be taught about it in computer science . On the other hand, 19% of young people believe that it is not necessary to learn artificial intelligence at school, and 9% cannot answer whether they would like to.

Young people find AI solutions most useful at school when studying technology-related subjects, such as engineering, computer science or design and technology classes (52%). At the same time, 41% see the role of MI in language learning – both Latvian and foreign languages. In addition, 39% of young people believe that AI can be useful for learning natural sciences (physics, chemistry, biology, geography), and 36% believe that it will help to ‘ understand mathematics better.

Young people see the importance of MI in sports and health education – only 8% of respondents see the usefulness of MI in these subjects. Only almost a quarter or 24% of the school-aged youth surveyed say that their schools already use AI solutions in the learning process, while more than half – 52% – admit that the school does not have implemented these solutions in the learning process.

“Basic knowledge of the operating principles of AI is already learned in the in-depth study course of general secondary education “Programming II”. As part of the course, young people look at different machine learning algorithms and compare them in action, solving tasks set by themselves. At the same time, along with theoretical knowledge, in today’s situations it is important to develop the skill to think critically and recognize the content generated by AI tools, as well as to use it to sensibly and ethically,” explained Mihails Korčevskis, a senior expert in psychology. The Department of General Education’s tests of the Evaluation and Analytics Department of the State Educational Content Center, on AI development trends.

“After the rapid increase in the popularity of AI tools at the end of 2022, several directions for further action have been defined, industry experts have begun to study the technical, legal and ethical aspects of AI. At the secondary education level, it is important to give young people a basic knowledge of the wide range of AI capabilities, while reminding them that the “inside” of AI tools is not but numbers and they will never replace her living teacher.”

M. Korčevskis points out that before they learn to use AI tools in schools, the teachers themselves must learn, try to understand what versatile possibilities these tools offer. Therefore, it is also important to think about the professional development of teachers – how to prepare such teaching that will be able to teach the meaningful and responsible use of AI tools in the future, because over time they will continue to integrate – into the learning process. . “This is our common time of challenges and opportunities in the coming years,” emphasizes M. Korčevskis.

Young people appreciate help from MI not only in everyday learning, but also in developing their abilities and talents. 44% of respondents admit that AI helps them learn and develop new skills, and 39% use artificial intelligence to improve their existing talents. A fifth of the young people surveyed admit that they would trust AI to choose their future career, but more than half (60%) believe that AI knowledge will be essential in their -all future posts.