Secondary school teachers in Greece are set to go through an intensive course in using artificial intelligence tools as the country assumes a frontline role in incorporating AI into its education system.
Next week, staff in 20 schools will be trained in a specialised version of ChatGPT, custom-made for academic institutions, under a new agreement between the centre-right government and OpenAI.
“We have to accept that AI does not exist in a parallel universe. It is here,” the education minister, Sofia Zacharaki, said ahead of the pilot programme launch.
The initiative, which is to be expanded nationally in January, makes Greece one of the first countries to pioneer the use of generative AI in the classroom.
Workshops will initially focus on teachers mastering the new technology to assist lesson planning, research and personalised tuition, before ChatGPT Edu is gradually integrated into schools. Next spring, when older secondary school students are allowed to use the tool, access will be tightly monitored, officials say.
Greece follows Estonia in its embrace of the technology. Prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s pro-business government has ambitions for Greece to become a technological hub, with Athens hosting one of Europe’s first AI factories.
Although Mitsotakis has warned of “significant social unrest” if the AI revolution is seen only to enrich tech companies, his administration is among the first to devise a national strategy to prepare Greeks “for the developments that all kinds of applications of this technology will bring”.
In schools where the majority of pupils already use apps such as ChatGPT, the government has been guided by the belief that “if you can’t beat the bot, befriend the bot.”
But among some Greeks the response has been less enthusiastic.
Secondary school pupils, citing the pressures of an education system overly concentrated on exams, express fears of being “outsmarted and controlled” by AI if it is allowed to develop unrestricted.
“It terrifies me,” said 17-year-old Aristidis Tolos, attending a demonstration in central Athens, held in part to protest against the direction of education reforms. “They’re asking so much of us, and now this. AI doesn’t have a soul, it’s a machine.”
OpenAI’s chief global affairs officer, Chris Lehane, says Greece’s commitment to test-run the chatbot amounts to a “new educational chapter” for the country. Under the deal, the US company has pledged to oversee that “best practices for safe, effective classroom use” are applied.
Sceptics are concerned that Greece is becoming a laboratory for a technology whose inherent risks include the erosion of critical and creative thinking.
In the downtown offices of the federation of secondary school teachers, Olme, the prospect of its introduction has ignited consternation.
“At our recent congress it was the main issue of discussion, with many voicing disquiet,” said top official Dimitris Aktypis, adding that…
Source link
Disclaimer
We strive to uphold the highest ethical standards in all of our reporting and coverage. We blogs.grocliq.com want to be transparent with our readers about any potential conflicts of interest that may arise in our work. It’s possible that some of the investors we feature may have connections to other businesses, including competitors or companies we write about. However, we want to assure our readers that this will not have any impact on the integrity or impartiality of our reporting. We are committed to delivering accurate, unbiased news and information to our audience, and we will continue to uphold our ethics and principles in all of our work. Thank you for your trust and support.
Website Upgradation is going on for any glitch kindly connect at [email protected]
