In our enthusiasm to share tools with students, it is important to keep in mind that we must protect the privacy of students, and ourselves. Below are some things to remember when using AI tools, or any web-based tools for that matter. Since we are teaching students younger than the age required for site use, we must be the operators of this tool in the classroom. Guardians should be informed of this requirement as well. We know students will use these tools regardless, the best we can do is inform guardians and restrict the use in our classrooms to adult-guided/led use.
There are also other important considerations for everyone using AI/ LLM-based apps. Please read below!
Most tools have age restrictions, for example:
Google Gemini - Users must be 18 years of age or older to use the add-on (Google)
OpenAI's Terms of Use state that users must be 13 or older. If you're under 18, you need your parent or guardian's permission to create an account. (Common Sense Media)
Microsoft Bing/Co-pilot AI: All Microsoft child accounts that identify the user as under 13 years of age or as otherwise specified under local laws cannot sign in to access the full new Bing experience (Microsoft)
**Currently, New Bedford Public Schools does not allow log-in with Google or Microsoft using district credentials. In some cases, you must sign-up with a personal account. As with any tech tool, the policy may change.
DO NOT SHARE SENSITIVE DATA! It becomes part of the data - other people may get the information using the tool. Want more insight? See this IBM blog post.
RESULTS MAY INCLUDE FALSE INFORMATION. These models are known to "hallucinate" providing answers which are presented confidently, but are not true. Everything must be read with a critical eye.
RESULTS CAN HAVE BIAS. The old addage of garbage in/garbage out applies here. These models pull from huge pools of data that come from a variety of sources. If the data is biased, which we know it often is, the results are biased. Here is a link to an interesting article on the site DataCamp
LACK OF SOURCE TRANSPARENCY. Where does the information come from? That is not always clear.
MATH. This is very interesting - it struggles with math.🤷
RESULTS CAN BE OUTDATED. Many of these tools use data that is multiple years old. It may not include recent data and events.