AI literacy refers to a set of competencies, dispositions, attitudes, and knowledge about AI tools, capabilities, and developments. AI literacy is important because as AI technologies rapidly grow in power, scope, and influence, it is important to understand how it impacts individuals and the world around them.
As a global and innovative institution, developing AI Literacy is an imperative part of National University's mission. While all of us in the NU community continue to learn about AI technology and how it will change our ways of working and learning, fostering a spirit of critical reflection, maintaining an attitude of openness, and engaging in dialogue will encourage AI Literacies.
Below are a set of competencies that cumulatively give shape to an overall AI literacy. As with all literacies, proficiency and adoption levels exist on a wide continuum, ranging from novice to expert. Some may be more familiar with some competencies than they are others.
We anticipate these competencies to be a living list, changing and growing along with AI technologies themselves.
Understand basic information literacy concepts and critically evaluate how AI relates to them.
Critically and metacognitively reflect on personal relationships with and experiences with AI. Understand and reflect on the impact AI has on personal work and growth.
Identify and describe different perspectives on the key ethical issues surrounding AI (i.e. privacy, employment, misinformation, the singularity, ethical decision making, diversity, bias, transparency, accountability).
Distinguish between technological artifacts that use and do not use AI. Critically engage and understand one’s own limitations in the ability to make these distinctions. Understand when, why, and where uses of AI might be deployed without transparency or acknowledgement of AI generation.
Critically analyze and discuss features that make an entity “intelligent”, including discussing differences between human, animal, and machine intelligence.
Recognize that there are many ways to think about and develop “intelligent” machines. Identify a variety of technologies that use AI, including technology spanning cognitive systems, robotics, and machine learning.
Identify problem types that AI excels at and problems that are more challenging for AI. Use this information to determine when it is appropriate to use AI and when to leverage human skills. Extend this reasoning across mulitple platforms and scenarios, including one's personal uses of AI technologies.
Imagine possible future applications of AI and consider the effects of such applications on the world.
AI tools are rapidly developing and changing. Possessing a general understanding of how these tools, how they work, and how they have been adopted in a variety of contexts is important so that individuals may better understand how AI technologies impact themselves and the world around them. Maintaining a curious and open disposition and developing appropriate information seeking habits will help individuals keep abreast of key technological information and changes.
Understand that data cannot be taken at face-value and requires interpretation. Describe how the training examples provided in an initial dataset can affect the results of an algorithm; Understand basic data literacy concepts.
© Copyright 2024 National University. All Rights Reserved.