Report released: Inquiry into use of generative AI in the Australian education system

The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Employment Education and Training has released its report from the inquiry into the use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in the Australian education system.

The report titled, Study Buddy or Influencer, notes that the Australian Government has a framework to encourage schools to use GenAI, and more universities are also integrating GenAI. There is a growing acceptance that GenAI is here to stay, and that Australia needs to evolve with it. This trend is being met with increased support for GenAI’s integration into the education system, and for guidance and safeguards to assist students, staff, parents and guardians, and developers.

The potential for GenAI to deliver benefits in the Australian education system, like personalised learning, improved education outcomes, and streamlined administrative processes, is exciting. However, there are also challenges relating to the use of GenAI, including broader safety and security concerns around ethics, data, and privacy. The particular vulnerability of children heightens many of these risks. The absence of a strong evidence base regarding GenAI’s impacts in education, despite the surging availability and use of the technology, is also an underlying concern.

The report made 25 recommendations including:

making the use of GenAI in education a national priority,

create safeguards for all users and safely integrate GenAI into Australian schools, universities, and TAFEs,

provide GenAI literacy and training through the use of the existing Digital Technologies Hub as a one-stop online repository of training and resources for educators, students, and parents and guardians to learn and teach about GenAI

create robust data protection frameworks,

working with educational providers to mitigate the risks of algorithmic bias and mis- and disinformation,

universities and TAFEs embed GenAI competencies and skills across all courses and degrees,

Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency work with higher education providers to develop standards and frameworks, including authorship policies, to guide universities in maintaining research and academic integrity regarding GenAI,

establish an innovation fund for universities to undertake research and development on the positive and negative impacts and potential application of the use of GenAI in education, and

establish a Centre for Digital Educational Excellence, modelled on the existing Cooperative Research Centres, which would act as a thought-leader in relation to both the use and development of GenAI in school and university settings.

You may be interested in reading these related papers produced by the Centre for Education and Training on the topics of generative artificial intelligence, digital skills, and our recent submissions to two government inquiries: