Understanding artificial intelligence (AI) tools
Grades: 6-12
Duration: 60 to 90 minutes, plus extension activities
Author: MediaSmarts and TELUS
Learning goals:
Key concepts/big ideas:
Understanding AI: Online Content
Generative AI is a new and evolving technology. It has many productive uses like acting as a research aid for homework or an assistant when planning an event. But like most technology that came before, generative AI can also be used for harmful purposes; for instance, it can be used to create fake websites, voice recordings, videos, images, and social media posts that mislead, embarrass or hurt people. What used to require a lot of technical skill to create, can now be done easily: most people who make fake content use widely-available AI tools.
Building Digital Balance: A Family Guide to Google's Safety and Well-Being Tools
When it comes to digital wellbeing, one of the most important things is to establish an ongoing conversation with your children about their online lives. There is no one size fits all; every family can develop strategies that work best for them. But having access to a wide range of tools can help you adapt those strategies at every stage of your kids’ journey. Here are some of the key principles for those conversations:
AI and algorithms - Overview
Artificial intelligence, or AI, uses computer algorithms trained on data sets to complete tasks with little human help. Children and teens interact with these systems daily through games, apps and content recommendations.
What is AI?
AI (artificial intelligence) is a way of using computer algorithms to do things with little or no human involvement.
Recommendation algorithms
Recommendation is where the role of algorithms is most visible to the public.
Generative AI
Generative AI is what we call AI systems that can generate things like images, video, voice and text. They do this by first encoding many examples of the kind of content they’re going to make, then decoding to make something new.
The AI industry
The AI industry encompasses both major technology companies that integrate algorithms into existing products and firms focused primarily on developing and deploying specialized AI services, primarily Large Language Models (LLMs) and generative tools.
