Schools: Artificial Intelligence Software

Lord Addington Excerpts

Thursday 19th January 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

This whole area throws up enormous issues in terms of copyright and intellectual property, of which this is one example. I know that colleagues in the Office for Artificial Intelligence are considering these issues in detail.

[Lord Addington (LD)]

Will the Minister take the time to make sure that people understand the difference between the various types of technology and particularly assistive technology? Assistive technology may be something that some people need for life, not just through their education, and they should probably start using it earlier than we do. Will the Government make sure that teachers and educationalists know the difference?

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

I suggest that teachers and educationalists do know the difference. The big change that we are seeing is the development of these LLMs—large language models—and other types of AI. However, I think that particularly for people with special educational needs, whether children or adults, this could really unlock their education in a way we have not seen previously.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

I am not sure of the link to the Question unless the noble Lord is suggesting that at some point a chatbot might replace our Scottish colleagues.

[Lord Addington (LD)]

My Lords, I take advantage of this moment to remind the House of my interests, which I should have declared.