The government has announced that artificial intelligence is to be used to support teachers, thanks to a new project.
Bringing together the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and the Department for Education, whilst utilising £4 million of government investment, the project will work to bring documents surrounding lesson planning, curriculum guidance, and pupil assessments, to train AI tools. Once the AI has learned the necessary information, it will then be used to generate accurate, high-quality content for teachers to use in their classrooms – such as tailored lesson plans and workbooks.
This comes as research has shown that people want teachers to use generative AI to free up the time that they would be using for other things, to give them more time to help children with face-to-face teaching. This will not only improve productivity across education but also support the government’s wider ambition to break down barriers to opportunity around the country.
Peter Kyle, Science Secretary, said:
“We know teachers work tirelessly to go above and beyond for their students.
“By making AI work for them, this project aims to ease admin burdens and help them deliver creative and inspiring lessons every day, while reducing time pressures they face.
“This is the first of many projects that will transform how we see and use public sector data. We will put the information we hold to work, using it in a safe and responsible way to reduce waiting lists, cut backlogs and improve outcomes for citizens across the country.”
The ‘content store’ is a first-of-its-kind approach to bringing data together for AI to support government goals, and clearly establishes the government’s vision for using technology to transform public services. Part of this drive has followed testing from the Department for Education, which showed that giving generative AI models access to certain data can increase accuracy from 67% to 92%.
Minister for Early Education Stephen Morgan, added:
“We are determined to break down the barriers to opportunity to ensure every child can get the best possible education – and that includes access to the best tech innovations for all. Artificial Intelligence, when made safe and reliable, represents an exciting opportunity to give our school leaders and teachers a helping hand with classroom life.
“Today’s world-leading announcement marks a huge step forward for AI in the classroom. This investment will allow us to safely harness the power of tech to make it work for our hard-working teachers, easing the pressures and workload burdens we know are facing the profession and freeing up time, allowing them to focus on face-to-face teaching.”
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