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:

AI is a hot topic

Students and educators are already having to deal with artificial intelligence (AI) and its implications on schoolwork, assignments and lessons. When writing an essay, or when completing a school project, generative AI tools like ChatGPT can maybe speed up the results, save time and craft the correct response. Is that a good thing or are we causing more issues for our futures?

Recommendation algorithms

Recommendation is where the role of algorithms is most visible to the public.

Understanding AI and helping youth make the most of it 

Everywhere we turn, we’re hearing about artificial intelligence (AI). We already know AI is all around us – algorithms are suggesting what to watch and tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney are being used to generate the content we’re seeing.  But how many of us actually understand what algorithms even are? And if you’re a parent, guardian or teacher, are you prepared to teach youth how to use AI responsibly? 

What is AI?

This guide provides an overview of what AI is – and in particular Generative AI – and gives two examples of main AI tools you are likely to encounter. Then it explains some key ethical and social issues related to Generative AI.

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.