Artificial Intelligence Comes to GCS

Although artificial intelligence (AI) technology has been advancing rapidly worldwide and has the potential to transform our world in incredible and sometimes frightening ways, that topic rarely enters the world of K-12 education. With that in mind, Glenelg Country School’s new educational initiative helps students and teachers understand the technology, terminology, ethics, and opportunities related to AI. Scott Proffitt, Upper School director of studies, and Marc Schmidt, director of academic technology, have led efforts to partner with Inspirit AI.

Inspirit AI, founded by graduates of some of America’s top universities, including Stanford and MIT, aims to bring these important topics to students from elementary to high school. Jared Greene, Inspirit AI’s director of programs, says, “it is critical to address the topic of AI with our students as early as possible to help them fully understand a technology which will transform their world.”

In February, GCS kicked off this initiative as Dr. Kuan-Chuen Wu addressed seniors in the Integrative Seminar class. With advanced degrees in artificial intelligence from Harvard and Stanford, Wu is a lead data scientist with several top research institutions applying AI to solve some of our planet’s toughest challenges. Although artificial intelligence has been in the media recently with the release of chatGPT and DALL-E 2, Wu’s main goal was to help GCS students understand the ethical implications of AI and how it is used in medicine, journalism, environment, finance, and justice to help solve problems and advance research.

GCS is committed to bringing this critical work to students and faculty. During the last month’s professional development day, Inspirit AI team members led a session with Glenelg Country School teachers to explore the same topics related to artificial intelligence and machine learning.

“Bringing new, transformative ideas and technology to students is at the core of our program as we help prepare our students for the challenges and opportunities of an ever-changing world,” says Schmidt.

Glenelg Country’s Upper School is also exploring ways to incorporate these topics into existing courses and new interdisciplinary electives taught in collaboration with Inspirit AI.