Based on US law, ChatGPT has already set this age limit for its users
UNESCO today called on governments to “rapidly regulate” the use of tools Artificial Intelligencesuch as ChatGPT, in classrooms, including limiting their use to younger children.
In recommendations published today by UNESCO, public authorities are not ready to manage ethical issues related to the integration of Artificial Intelligence technologies in school classrooms.
This UN organization suggests that governments set a minimum age for the use of Artificial General Intelligence technologies, which cannot be less than 13 years.
Based on US law, ChatGPT has already set this age limit for its users, but “many commentators believe this limit is too low and support raising it to 16 years,” the report points out.
Inside classrooms, replacing teachers with such technologies could affect children’s emotional health and make them vulnerable to manipulation, warns Unesco.
According to UNESCO director-general Audrey Azoulet, “Artificial General Intelligence can be a huge opportunity for human development, but it can also be the source of damage and harm.”
“It (Artificial General Intelligence) cannot be integrated into education without public involvement and strong government regulations and safeguards,” Azoulet stressed.
Artificial Intelligence technologies available to the general public have been developed since late 2022, when ChatGPT, created by OpenAI, proved capable of generating concise texts, poems and conversations from concise questions, the EIA highlighted.
This explosion of these tools has also raised fears of new forms of plagiarism or fraud in schools and universities, without however diminishing the attractiveness of an education market that is seen as potentially very lucrative.
UNESCO underlines in its guidelines that AI tools have the potential to help children with special educational needs, for example by creating subtitles, provided that teachers, users and researchers help design these tools and that the governments regulate their use.
