By: Jack Brittle, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Burlington Local-News.ca
Earlier this week, Curtis Ennis, Halton District School Board (HDSB) director of education, hosted an installment in his Director’s Panel Series. The event was titled “A More Human Version of AI,” and featured author and technologist Kulbir Colin Singh Dhillon as a guest speaker.
Ennis prefaced the conversation by saying that he is aware that many parents are concerned about what implications AI may have for HDSB students’ future success and achievements.
“Hopefully, this will broaden our perspective and give us another lens to view this through,” Ennis said.
According to the HDSB website, “No GenAI tools are currently approved for use by students in the HDSB in grades K–6.”
However, programs like ChatGPT and DALL-E are approved for secondary school students, among others, while Google Gemini and Curipod are available to grade 7 and 8 students as well.
HDSB policy states that any use of AI in assignments must be properly cited, but that it can’t be used to generate essays or to solve test questions. In addition, teachers wishing to use Generative AI in their class must send a consent form home for parents to sign.
The HDSB website states that their goal is to “create a learning environment where AI technologies empower rather than replace the human aspects of education. We embrace these technologies cautiously to prepare students for a future where these technologies are ubiquitous.”
Pardeep Nagra, human rights and equity advisor for the HDSB, explained that Dhillon’s latest book, Soulful AI, “ invites us to reimagine artificial intelligence, not just as a technological evolution, but as a deeply human one, drawing on decades of real-world experience and advanced manufacturing design thinking.”
Dhillon started off the discussion by asserting that we should think of AI not as a technology, but as a “ brand new digital species.”
“Imagine discovering, whether it’s in the depths of the Amazon, on the surface of Mars, or on another moon, what would happen to society if we found a brand-new species of X,” Dhillon said. “That is the level of excitement that’s happening with those of us who are working with AI on a day-to-day basis.”
Nagra asked what Dhillon would say to parents who are concerned about the proliferation of AI among youth.
Dhillon brought up the recent controversy surrounding X [formerly Twitter], in which child sexual abuse material (CSAM) was created using its AI tool, Grok.
He also said that we are not even close to reaching the peak of how advanced AI will become.
“There is no bell curve on AI yet,” Dhillon said. “We are actually at the beginning of that graph. We haven’t reached the arc of a bell curve. We are at the dial-up phone, AOL, ‘you’ve got mail’ portion of email back in the nineties. Where it was painful, it wasn’t perfect, but somehow companies and those around us thought it was going to make our lives easier, better, and more efficient.”
Dhillon said that just like with cell phones and tablets, parents should limit the time that kids use AI and have oversight on what they’re doing with it.
HDSB is one of the few school boards that Dhillon is aware of with a policy on AI use.
His opinion on AI regulation differs from his attitude towards it in other areas.
“I’ve been on the front end of innovation in Canada [when it comes to] building electric vehicles and supporting the autonomous vehicles,” Dhillon said. “In my conversations with federal organizations that create regulations, I was always the one saying, ‘Back off, don’t stifle innovation, don’t create regulations.’ With AI, though, I was the first one to raise my hand and say, ‘We need to all come around the table and get together on this. This is something that needs to be controlled.’”
Dhillon said that it is inevitable that AI will become more intelligent than humans, which is why “we don’t get a second chance at this.”
He sees an opportunity for an AI model developed by HDSB using data from both the Halton Region and the province. The model would be an assistant to teachers in every class.
“If we feel like 12 children in a classroom of 22 could do with additional specific support, we could potentially provide that,” Dhillon said. “This assistant to the teacher would work with those students and allow him or her to be able to pivot, and feel like they’ve accomplished what they’ve always dreamt of, which is to be able to provide as much time for every child in every class [as they need].”
Ennis asked Dhillon what he thinks of the fear that overexposure to AI will lead to a drop in critical thinking skills.
“Do I worry they’ll become extinct?” Dhillon asked rhetorically. “No. Am I worried about the data that’s currently being collected around critical thinking and children and humans in general? Yes, I am. Because, look, it’s human nature to try and always find the shortcut.”
“I would say to school boards, you’ve got to stay nimble and just be ready to pivot as things shift, because the target keeps moving,” Dhillon advised.
Dhillon is hopeful, though: he sees a future where knowledge is in abundance, with no gatekeepers or barriers to accessing it.
“If we do get it right, we may actually be heading to that utopia, with a little bit of dystopia before we get there,” Dhillon said. “But there is a future which could be quite beautiful, if we get it right.”
Dhillon said that he is a supporter of automated manufacturing and autonomous vehicles, and that some level of educational careers will be usurped by AI.
“I think they will replace the learning element of teaching,” Dhillon said. “I think the emotional requirement of having a teacher, guide or person of trust will always be an element [though]. But there will be a shakeup and re-evaluation of how many are required.”
Dhillon said that China and Singapore are the frontlines of AI; he predicts the aforementioned change coming there in the next five years, and here in the next 15.
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