Promoting AI Literacy for the Public

Abstract

The increased involvement that AI plays in people's lives highlights the demand for greater public knowledge about AI. Lifelong learning environments are especially crucial for building AI literacy as they possess the ability to reach a larger audience and create opportunities for everyone to learn. This ongoing project aims at exploring the perception and understanding of AI by different members of the public (i.e., children, adults). In addition, it aims at promoting AI literacy among different groups of the public (e.g., educators, adults, elderly and children) through an open course and identifying the best practices for developing appropriate training activities for each group. As an initial step, a pilot study was conducted for investigating the response of the general public to a distance learning initiative and their educational needs for learning about AI. Results indicate that after attending a short course on AI, participants were able to understand and recognize what AI is, appreciate its positive and negative aspects, and most importantly, acknowledge the need for educating children and adults about AI. Finally, the results highlight that educating the general public about AI is a complex task that must be informed by further research. As a next step, questionnaires will be distributed in an attempt to understand how public perceive AI. Considering public's knowledge and understanding of AI, appropriate learning activities will be developed aiming to help different groups of the public to acquire the necessary skills related to AI literacy.