NSW Education Minister calls for national classroom rules for AI

Australia’s biggest schooling system wants national regulation of artificial intelligence in classrooms, arguing schools ‘need to be careful’ with the technology.

NSW Deputy Premier and Education Minister Prue Car. Picture: NCA NewsWire/David Swift

Australia’s biggest schooling system has called for national regulation of artificial intelligence in classrooms.

NSW Education Minister and Deputy Premier Prue Car warned that AI could “potentially be quite dangerous’’. She said individual teachers and schools should not have to set their own policies for the use of AI chatbots in teaching and assessment.

“There absolutely should be a national or systemic approach (to its use),’’ she said. “Like what we’ve done (banning) mobile phones, we need to ensure that schools are actually supported by the policy of the government so they are not having to deal with it school-by-school.’’

Ms Car said she was looking forward to discussing national guidelines for the use of AI, including safeguards for privacy and cheating, at a meeting with federal, state and territory education ministers in July. “We need to be open to the possibilities of how AI can work in schools in the future, but we just need to be really careful,’’ she said.

State school systems across Australia have banned students from using AI chatbot ChatGPT, but some Catholic and private schools permit its use. Ms Car said she would review NSW’s AI ban in public schools, based on advice from education experts.

She said she was concerned about a two-tiered education system if some students were allowed to use expensive AI apps that classmates could not afford. “We know there is massive disparity (between schools) anyway so there is no way this government would be participating in anything to make that equity disparity worse,’’ she said.

A federal parliamentary committee is also investigating the “benefits and risks’’ of AI in education. The inquiry will look at ways to use AI to improve education outcomes in a safe and ethical way.