S chool homework will be marked by artificial intelligence under a new government project. A database made of official curriculum-specific documents, including anonymised student assessments, lesson plans and teacher guidance is being created with £4 million of taxpayer money.
Customised content
Technology companies will use this resource to create bespoke educational AI tools for use by teachers in the classroom to help with the more time-consuming tasks, according to a Telegraph report.
It is envisioned that AI trained on the official database will be more accurate, less biased and more secure than current commercial options and free up teachers to focus on helping students.
Teachers are broadly supportive of the technology as a way to reduce the workload but say artificial intelligence will not be able to replace them in the classroom. Lesson plans and in-class activities will be made by AI under the current plans and classwork and homework will also be marked by AI tools.
Commercially available AI systems such as ChatGPT are already being used by both teachers and students and educational companies such as Pearson are now making their own custom AI programmes.
However, the Department for Science hopes that establishing its own trusted datasource will make the tools more useful to pupils of all ages, and at both state and independent schools.
Government analysis claims that the project will make classroom AI 92 per cent accurate, compared with the 67 per cent rate for current commercial alternatives.
Peter Kyle, the Science Secretary, said: “We know teachers work tirelessly to go above and beyond for their students.
