Generative AIs (GenAIs) have now fully entered the day-to-day of learning, teaching and research. Universities around the world have taken a variety of stances, from outwardly turning against the use of GenAIs to embracing it and adapting to it, arguing that institutions of higher education (IHEs) are spaces where the latest scientific and technological advancements need to be experimented with, rather than discouraged.
In the context of rising concerns regarding GenAI use, a two-day deliberative process was organized and hosted at the University of Edinburgh’s Edinburgh Futures Institute. A total of 17 students from 6 disciplines, gathered and deliberated on the question “How can we reimagine teaching, learning, and research methods to align with the advancements in AI and ethics?”. In total, 6 deliberative sessions were facilitated and 5 presentations were given by experts.
After two days, the members of the students’ assembly presented 7 principles to guide the use of GenAI at EFI. This output aims to provide a strong and consensual signal that EFI, as a future-oriented IHE as well as a community of practice, must work towards a bolder, more democratic, fair, empathetic, sustainable and transparent approach to GenAI in teaching, learning and research.
What is a students’ assembly?
Students’ assemblies, like citizens’ assemblies, are spaces in which the members of an assembly deliberate and work together towards a common output (principles, recommendations, manifesto etc.) and on a particular issue. Issues addressed with deliberation can be complex: they lack immediate, obvious solutions, they present long-term challenges for society, and they have generated particularly divisive opinions.
Deliberative processes have been organized by national and local governments around the world (in 34 countries) to tackle complex and long-term policy issues such as climate change, abortion or the end of life. Based on the 2023 update of the OECD Database on Representative Deliberative Processes, between 1979 and 2023, a total of 733 deliberative processes were organized. In a report published in 2020, the OECD coined this recent rise in deliberative processes as the “deliberative wave”.
The top 3 topics tackled in these public deliberative processes are urban planning, environment and health. 76 deliberative processes have been convened on urban planning compared to 17 on technology-related topics. Aside from a citizens’ panel on AI taking place at the Council of Europe, under the Belgian presidency, no deliberative process has been organized by public authorities on AI. More recently, MIT has conducted a students’ assembly on AI in collaboration with DemocracyNext.