By Ryan Oliver, CEO, Ampere and Canada Learning Code
Before the advent of the smartphone, the internet was a place we went. For anywhere from 10 minutes to a few hours a day, we could log in, surf and return to the real world to interact with our families, neighbours and community. The internet is now with us at all times. Social Media pushed that dependence once step further, and Generative AI is threatening to do the same.
Generative AI poses an acknowledged risk of critical thinking impairment, knowledge theft, and job loss. We’ve seen isolation created by Social Media and the mental health risks that Generative AI is already posing for individual users and communities, and we recognise the colonial impact that AI is already threatening, as it inevitably leans towards a monocultural style and blandness.
Ampere seeks to engage in an ongoing discussion on how to decolonise the use of technology, including AI, and how to prevent the colonial use of tools like generative AI.
By surrounding AI with community needs, we pivot the conversation from a framework of how AI will change our communities to one on how a community can use AI to serve their needs, under their terms and ultimately how our communities can change AI.
The requirement to both start and return to the community throughout the use of AI ensures that individuals have a say in how community priorities are implemented.
The Ampere approach focuses on recognising AI as a tool. We seek to ensure AI cannot replace a sense of belonging. Community-centred, creative output is elevated and complemented by AI as a tool to level the playing field in information access, while actively working within our community values and priorities to advocate for changes for AI and community control.
Ampere’s Approach: A Tool
Ampere’s approach to Generative AI is to acknowledge its status as a handy tool while pushing back against the idea that it can define and direct our communities. In line with our core values, we try to ensure our communities stand at the centre of all decisions, with access to information and the efficiencies AI can provide, and that human-led creativity protects and promotes equity within the decision-making hierarchy.
Ampere’s delivery methodology for Artificial Intelligence mirrors and expands upon the delivery methodology we have used since our first Code Club in 2014. It included:
– Learning rooted in play and human-based creativity.
– Maximum 45 minutes in front of a screen before returning to community discussion and hands-on learning.
– No one-size-fits-all, no one-and-done, in our lessons or teachings.
– Long-term, sustainable learning opportunities rooted in a lifecycle approach.
– The Access and Return Approach to AI Use
Access and Return
Artificial Intelligence, specifically the use of Generative AI use within Ampere spaces, works through an ‘Access and Return’ approach, which welcomes Generative AI tools as something we access, but prioritise returning to human collaboration and creativity. This approach eliminates dependency and refocuses solution development within the community, rather than within the tool.
AI use within the Pinnguaq/Ampere model starts and ends with the community. We focus on Community Centeredness, seeking out what the community needs and wants and where AI could play a role in supporting those needs.
Access to the generative AI tool occurs as purposeful moments within a learning day. Learners have access to and training on top-of-the-line AI tools. It’s used to spark curiosity, identify efficiencies, and answer questions, but ultimately it drives people back to the community to implement those solutions. Like a calculator, it’s accessed when needed, with purpose and with a specific goal.
Upon the conclusion of the use of Generative AI, learners return to the community and class to utilize human creativity and critical thinking to apply the new data to solving the challenges of the day.
This does not mean that learners are unable to use AI at any point. Instead, it focuses on the use of generative AI as one of many resources in a collaborative, community-centred solution process.
Safety and Boundaries
AI use within Ampere/Pinnguaq programming prioritises individual and community safety and privacy during any access to AI by our participants or employees. The use of AI in Ampere programming is accompanied by initial ethics and privacy training. Reinforcing existing AI best practices and equipping users with the tools to recognise and avoid hallucinations.
Ampere programming never shares individual data, images or protected stories, language or cultural knowledge with an AI system without explicit permission from the rights/knowledge holders.
How This Approach Fits Within the Pinnguaq/Ampere AI Policy;
The existing Ampere policy for artificial intelligence forbids the public-facing use of generative AI for creative works by Ampere Staff and Contractors. It allows generative AI use in creative industries only as a tool to empower actual human expression and provide clear direction to creatives within the organisation and our communities.
This methodology aligns with existing policy, treating AI as a tool to consult, not as the creator of the final product.
AI use within the Ampere ecosystem adheres to two core sets of principles. The methodology outlined here and the AI Policy governing appropriate internal and external use of generative AI. Central to both of these documents is that creativity matters.
AI use within the Ampere ecosystem adheres to two core sets of principles. The methodology outlined here and the AI Policy governing appropriate internal and external use of generative AI. Central to both of these documents is that creativity matters.