School children are using free online artificial intelligence (AI) software to write essays and poetry for them, as well as university applications and even art projects, a teacher told Parliament.
Lord Hampton, who is a working teacher in a north London state school, said an A-level product design student of his even generated degree-level designs in minutes using AI. He warned peers in the House of Lords that conversations around AI dominated by issues of plagiarism and intellectual property miss the fact that the curriculum needs to catch up with a changing world.
The independent crossbench peer said: "There is a lot of anecdotal evidence, at the moment, that suggests that students are using AI for everything from essays and poetry to university applications and, rather more surprisingly, in the visual arts subjects. Just before Christmas, one of my product design A-level students came up to me and showed me some designs he'd done.
"He'd taken a cardboard model, photographed it, put it into a free piece of software, put in three different parameters and had received, within minutes, 20 high-resolution designs, all original, that were degree level - they weren't A-level, they were degree level. At the moment, it's about plagiarism and it's about fighting the software - I would like to ask when the Government is planning to meet with education professionals and the exam boards to actually work out (how) to design a new curriculum that embraces the new opportunity rather than fighting it."
His comments come amid increasing concern that students will use AI to cheat in assessments and claim the artificially generated work as their own.
Lord Clement-Jones, Liberal Democrat spokesperson for the digital economy, said: "This question clearly concerns a very powerful new generative probabilistic type of artificial intelligence that we ought to encourage in terms of creativity, but not in terms of cheating or deception."
Labour frontbencher Baroness Chapman of Darlington raised concerns that unequal access to these technologies could disadvantage those without the means to use them.
She said: "Is (the minister) concerned about the fairness of access to technology that may be affecting the way young people are assessed? Because not all young people will have the same access to these technologies and it may not be that all schools are applying advice on this issue consistently."
Schools minister Baroness Barran said that reforms to GCSEs and A-levels meant most assessments take place under exam conditions.
She said: "We're committed to pupils building knowledge and skills so they can take advantage of the opportunities that AI creates, including in creative subjects. Since our reforms to GCSE and A-levels, most assessments are exam-based where pupils are assessed under exam conditions with no internet access."
She added: "In terms of fairness of access to technology, obviously the Government is working very hard and is committed to making sure those building blocks in terms of really high quality Wi-Fi access etc are available across all of our schools."
In terms of adapting the curriculum with AI in mind, the minister said: "The Government is already engaging with the education sector on these issues. I'll be meeting with the head of Ofqual next week. There's been recent guidance produced also for universities in this area."
Former Culture Secretary Baroness Morgan of Cotes urged the Government to take advantage of the opportunities provided by AI.
The Tory peer said: "The responsible use of AI in school will set up our young people for the workplaces of the future, because AI is with us whether we like it or not."
Lady Barran responded that she agreed "the genie is out of the bottle in terms of AI and it's how we manage the risk and capitalise on the opportunity".
She added: "We are aiming to do that, both in our schools and in our universities and, indeed, we already have a programme for creating 1,000 new PhDs through centres for doctoral training, as well as opportunities for addressing the lack of diversity in the UK AI market."
