“The goal of these institutions of higher education is to implement DEI ideology into AI before it can be fully integrated into America’s education system.”
A new report from Defending Education has revealed how institutions of higher education in the United States are working to implement diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) ideology into artificial intelligence before the use of AI becomes fully integrated into the education system in the US.
Defending Education wrote, “The goal of these institutions of higher education is to implement DEI ideology into AI before it can be fully integrated into America’s education system. If DEI is embedded in AI before schools adopt these new tools, then DEI becomes institutionalized in the nation’s schools through AI once those tools are implemented.”
The organization found a number of colleges and universities that are undertaking this work, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; University of California, Berkeley; Columbia University; Virginia State University; and Morgan State University.
At MIT, the prestigious school has an initiative called Responsible AI for Social Empowerment and Education (RAISE). The program’s mission is to “rethink and invent a more positive and inclusive future of education and learning in the era of AI,” and says that the program’s work “informs, engages, and empowers millions of teachers, learners, innovators, researchers, and leaders worldwide.”
When referencing those who want to get involved, MIT says, “We’d love to hear from you whether you are an educator, funder, or curious collaborator – reach out and let’s connect. Stay in the loop with our mailing list for our latest resources, events, and work in equitable AI education.”
RAISE offers curricula for students in grade school to help “understand, question, and create with artificial intelligence,” and includes a curriculum called “AI and Ethics.” The curriculum’s description states, “Students explore the mechanics of AI systems, including algorithms, datasets, and prediction, while developing critical thinking around topics like algorithmic bias, optimization, and socio-technical systems.”
Algorithmic bias is the claim that AI systems may be influenced by their makers, “typically created by white or Asian men," and that the answers they provide “will be influenced by these specific white and Asian men who created them,” per Defending Education.
RAISE claims to equip teachers in grade school with “engaging, age-appropriate AI resources that make it easy to introduce students to the fundamentals of artificial intelligence,” and that RAISE programs are “designed to be accessible, inclusive, and culturally responsive.”
At Berkeley, the school has a program called the UC Berkeley AI Research Lab (BAIR), which “conducts cutting-edge research and projects, while supporting an inclusive community of researchers across AI and social science disciplines to advance understandings around theories and practices for responsible AI.”
The program seeks to “drive critical research, innovation and collaboration towards responsible and equitable AI,” and emphasizes “workshops and convenings” for “researchers, industry leaders, and policymakers to learn from and connect with each other on topics of responsible AI.”
BAIR has accused ChatGPT of discrimination for using “Standard American English” as its default language, claiming that people who speak “varieties such as Indian English, Nigerian English, Irish English, and African-American English” face “discrimination in the real world.”
BAIR has also been working on a project titled “Gender Equity and Generative AI,” in which the university says generative AI is frequently “built on large, powerful foundation models which are known to have pervasive biases along the lines of gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, language, and more.” BAIR claims that AI tools are “stereotype machines.” The goal of the project is to “seek to better unpack gender biases in open text to image models, while also informing a gender equity benchmark.”
Columbia University has a school-wide initiative to harness “the transformative power of AI to improve lives, reduce inequity, and build just, responsive systems that serve communities and the public good.” One part of that initiative is the “AI for Social Good and Society (AI4SGS) Initiative,” which claims to advance “research, education, and training at the intersection of artificial intelligence and social good.”
Columbia University’s Social Intervention Group (SIG) states that “AI is rapidly reshaping our world but without intentional design, it risks reinforcing the very inequities we seek to eliminate. Now is the time to ensure that AI serves the public good. AI4SGS is building a transformative platform for innovation—one rooted in justice, humility, and real-world impact.”
SIG also has a project in which they explore how to “ensure AI chatbots are safe and effective for LGBTQ+ communities,” creating a “human-driven benchmarking tool to evaluate outputs from popular chatbots.”
This comes on the heels of another report from Defending Education, in which the group unveiled how America’s largest teachers’ unions and education associations are working to implement DEI into AI before it’s widespread adoption in the classroom as well. These groups include the National Education Association, American Federation of Teachers, Teachers unions in California and New York, as well as the United Federation of Teachers in New York City, and other education professional groups.
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