Researchers Wanted Preschool Teachers to Wear Cameras to Train AI
Source: 404 Media
University of Washington researchers planned to have preschool teachers wear cameras that would record everything they saw from a first-person perspective, including the children they were teaching, then use that footage to develop AI models. Crucially, the program was presented as opt-out, rather than opt-in, meaning that parents had to take steps to prevent recordings of their children being processed by AI.
“With your permission, your child’s lead teacher may wear a small teacher-worn camera that captures the teacher's approximate first-person perspective, and/or we may place a fixed video camera in the classroom,” a document given to parents and later shared with 404 Media reads. “These videos simply capture the normal interactions between teachers and children during regular classroom activities. Recordings occur during morning program hours up to 150 minutes, up to 4 visits in one month. Your child will not be asked to do anything new or different. Their daily routine will stay exactly the same.”
404 Media has repeatedly covered how AI is permeating through education. That includes students using AI themselves, and even the creation of entire AI-powered schools. Now, the University of Washington research shows how AI data collection is pushing into early childhood education too.
Or, it would have, if parents didn’t revolt. After a backlash, the University of Washington told 404 Media it has now shelved the planned research.
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Read more: https://www.404media.co/researchers-wanted-preschool-teachers-to-wear-cameras-to-train-ai/
This was an insane plan. It was also a great example of AI-inspired delusional thinking, the attitude that AI should be used by and for everyone, everywhere, all at once.
Even if those researchers were foolish enough to consider this a good idea, it should always have been opt-in, not opt-out.
But of course we're dealing with an industry that trained its AI tools on the theft of the world's intellectual property, the completely unethical attitude that AI is so important everyone and everything belong in AI training data. An attitude also obvious with, for instance, Meta's smart glasses.
But scientists really should be more thoughtful.
The university did not disclose who was funding this research, either, or which AI models they would be training, and which other AI models they'd be using earlier to analyze the recordings. All they said was that "Video data may be processed using cloud-based AI services." There was no information on whom the data might be shared with, or how long it might be saved.
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It's an awful idea, and I'm glad to read that the parents rejected it whole-heartedly. I can't believe the teachers were willing to comply. Or maybe they weren't given a choice? I don't know.
then nobody will be able to consume their products.
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