Critical AI Literacy (CAIL) is crucial for the world we live in. Yet, surprisingly, this topic is still absent in curricula at schools and higher education institutes. AI applications are adopted in every sphere of society at a worrisome speed. Public and private plans are rolled out to use AI systems in education, legal decision-making, therapeutical settings, medical diagnosis, journalism, police investigations, creative art, and scientific research. However, at present there is no educational infrastructure to teach Critical AI Literacy. This is problematic as uncritical and unreflective adoption of AI provably harms minorities (e.g., as seen during the Dutch welfare fraud scandal), the environment (e.g., through increased energy use), workers (e.g., through unfair salaries below minimum wage), creatives (e.g., through copyright violations), to name just a few. As AI automates existing biases and power structures in society, it is an amplifier of social, economic and environmental injustices. We need to educate pupils, students, teachers at schools and in higher education, and the public how uncritical adoption of AI contributes to harm and what is needed to prevent or minimize harm. Critical AI literacy is therefore urgently needed.
In the present project, we focus on developing materials on CAIL for primary and secondary school children, higher education students, teachers in schools and higher education, school leaders, and school board members. By applying transformative, transdisciplinary, and participatory educational didactical tools and engage our target groups from the start, we will be able to align our critical approach with innovative ways to teach. This results in empowering people to take the lead when it comes to how they want to engage with AI applications in their lives and professional careers.
