206 EX/44 Rev. Executive Board Job: 201904120 Two hundred and sixth session PARIS, 22 March 2019 Arabic/English/French only Item 44 of the provisional agenda EXPLORING THE POTENTIAL OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TO ACCELERATE THE PROGRESS TOWARDS SDG 4-EDUCATION 2030 SUMMARY This item has been included in the provisional agenda of the 206th session of the Executive Board at the request of the People’s Republic of China, co- sponsored by Armenia, Benin, Ethiopia, Gambia, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Madagascar, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Senegal, Serbia, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, and Uruguay. The purpose of the document is to inform the Executive Board about the potential of artificial intelligence which is one of the main driving forces for the Industrialization 4.0, to accelerate the progress towards SDG 4-Education 2030, especially in reducing the digital gap and ensuring quality education. This proposal aims to stress the important potential of new technological development relating to AI to fulfill UNESCO’s mandate in assisting member states to take full advantage of innovative methods to ensure inclusive and quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all, especially for the most marginalized. The financial and administrative implications are extrabudgetary and clarified in paragraph 9 of the document. Action expected of the Executive Board: Proposed decision in paragraph 10.206 EX/44 Rev. EXPLANATORY NOTE Background 1. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a convergence of a widening spectrum of frontier technologies, and it has garnered the potential to bring new possibilities for sustainable development and societal change in recent years. AI has become pervasive in daily lives, given rise to the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0), and is bringing the human history to a new era where humans need to live and work together with AI. The arrival of the AI era is raising a fundamental question about how education can prepare individuals to live and work together with AI effectively and to build sustainable societies. 2. For education and learning, there is a consensus that the impact of AI has its benefit-risk duality. To reinvent education systems towards an AI era, policy makers will need to examine benefits and potential risks of AI in the context of achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) – Education 2030 agenda on the provision of inclusive, equitable, quality education and lifelong learning opportunities. As we enter the 4th year of implementing the Education 2030 agenda, we are facing major challenges. Globally, there are 262 million children and youth out of schools and a 617 million illiterate population, and only in sub-Saharan Africa, less than 40% of female children completing nine years of education. Achieving the ambitious Education 2030 agenda will require unlocking all potential resources particularly the potentials of frontier technologies. 3. AI holds the potentials to overcome some of these challenges, such as reducing barriers to access education, automating management processes, analysing learning patterns and optimizing learning processes with a view to improving learning outcomes. There is no doubt that AI will revolutionize the delivery and management of education and learning, but the key question is how AI can improve learning outcomes. And while we believe that teachers will not be replaced by machines by 2030, we still need a dynamic reviews and social dialogue on how AI will transform teachers’ roles. This will require a transformational approach to teacher training and we need to provide continuous support to prepare teachers to work with AI in an AI-rich education environment. 4. To maximize AI’s benefits and mitigate its potential risks for education, system-wide planning and collective actions to reinvent the core foundation of education and learning are required. To achieve this, the readiness of all stakeholders particularly policy makers, system managers, and teachers, is tested. 5. Building on its mandatory roles of laboratory of ideas, normative instrument development and consensus building, UNESCO is committed to acting as a convener among Member States, civil society, media, the technical community, academia, and the cultural and creative industries in exploring the best possible ways to leverage artificial intelligence for sustainable development. UNESCO takes a human-centred approach to promoting international dialogues on the universal aspects of AI in the areas related to education, sciences, culture, and communication and information, with a specific focus on gender equality and Africa. 6. UNESCO and the Government of the People’s Republic of China share a record of successful cooperation in jointly organizing international conferences on harnessing ICT to achieve SDG 4 in 2015 and 2017 respectively. The Qingdao Declaration was released and adopted by Member States and key partners at the Conference in 2015. It affirms that to achieve the goal of inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning by 2030, ICT must be harnessed to strengthen education systems, knowledge dissemination, information access, quality and effective learning, and more efficient service provision. As the use of ICT in education enters a new epoch featured by the pervasive and transformative power of AI, it is timely for the international community of education to review the profound and far-reaching interaction between AI and education, and deliberate on a consensus about policies and strategies that could lead the leapfrog of education to be driven and enabled by AI. 7. It is under this context that, UNESCO, the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China and the National Commission of the People’s Republic of China for UNESCO will co-organize206 EX/44 Rev. – page 2 an International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Education in Beijing from 16 to 18 May 2019. 8. The outputs of the Conference will include a high-level Statement to provide Member States with policy recommendations on exploring the power of AI to address current educational challenges and to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong opportunities for all. Follow-up actions and relevant partnerships will be planned as well. Financial and administrative implications 9. In accordance with the established rules, all expenses related to the participation in this conference will be borne by extrabudgetary financial contributions. In consideration of the current financial situation of the Organization, additional extrabudgetary funding should be attracted to support the follow-up actions on leveraging artificial intelligence to support the achievement of Education 2030. Proposed decision 10. In the light of the above, the Executive Board may wish to adopt a decision along the following lines: The Executive Board, 1. Recalling paragraph 29, under strategic objective 1 in document 37 C/4, and expected result (ER) 3 of Major Programme I in document 39 C/5, 2. Recalling paragraph 4 of the Qingdao Declaration, emphasizing the role of information and communications technology (ICT), which is a part of artificial intelligence (AI), in the achievement of Education 2030, 3. Taking stock of UNESCO’s current intensive discussions and reflections on artificial intelligence (AI) as a new driving force shaping every aspect of the economy, society and human life, 4. Having examined document 206 EX/44, 5. Takes note of the actions by UNESCO in this field; 6. Expresses its gratitude to the Government of China for its support and generous contribution to the organization of the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Education (AIED); 7. Invites the participation of high-level representatives from Member States in the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Education (AIED) and requests the Director-General to: (a) Reinforce UNESCO’s leadership role in supporting Member States to develop strategies to explore the potential of AIED to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all, with particular attention to gender equality and priority Africa; (b) Strengthen UNESCO’s programmatic actions in the area of AIED, particularly on the development of policy guidelines in leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to support the achievement of the Education 2030 Agenda goals and targets. (c) Promote programmes encouraging the learning of new technologies accessible to all, based on good practices existing in the Member States in the field of education of new technologies. Printed on recycled paper206 EX/44 Rev. Corr. Executive Board Job: 201904545 Two hundred and sixth session PARIS, 29 March 2019 Original: English Item 44 of the provisional agenda EXPLORING THE POTENTIAL OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TO ACCELERATE THE PROGRESS TOWARDS SDG 4-EDUCATION 2030 CORRIGENDUM The Summary table should read as follows: SUMMARY This item has been included in the provisional agenda of the 206th session of the Executive Board at the request of China, co-sponsored by Armenia, Benin, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Madagascar, Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Russian Federation, Senegal, Serbia, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, and Uruguay. The purpose of the document is to inform the Executive Board about the potential of artificial intelligence which is one of the main driving forces for the Industrialization 4.0, to accelerate the progress towards SDG 4- Education 2030, especially in reducing the digital gap and ensuring quality education. This proposal aims to stress the important potential of new technological development relating to AI to fulfill UNESCO’s mandate in assisting member states to take full advantage of innovative methods to ensure inclusive and quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all, especially for the most marginalized. The financial and administrative implications are extrabudgetary and clarified in paragraph 9 of the document. Action expected of the Executive Board: Proposed decision in paragraph 10. Printed on recycled paper