Only a few weeks ago in Get Online Week, I had the pleasure of attending a community based session on using ChatGPT. The room was full of people interested in learning, a great facilitator who talked about the benefits, what you need to be careful of, how you write a good prompt and how you understand whether what it produces is right. There were digital mentors walking around the room supporting people to troubleshoot and have a go. There were puzzled faces and a lot of laughter as people created images and found information.
This session on AI was all delivered to older people, in Korean.
So there I am, sitting up the back of a room, not understanding a word of what was being delivered and having the experience that so many people in our community have of trying to understand something that is not being delivered with me in mind.
Now, I was not the intended audience of this session, so it was absolutely right that I worked to include myself. So, what did I do?
I used technology to feel included.
I used two different translation tools to understand what the slides said so I could follow along, and to speak to my 85+ year old tablemates so we could laugh together about what we were learning.
This is what community based AI literacy can look like.
But, why is it so important to ensure that Korean elders learn about new and emerging technologies?
As national and global attention focuses on the impact of AI, listening to the voices of those people at risk of being left behind and giving them the opportunity to learn is vital.
And, digital inclusion continues to be a major challenge in Australia.
In the last two weeks, I had the opportunity to be at the launch of the New Australian Digital Inclusion Index (ADII) report. It shows that 1 in 5 people in Australia are digitally excluded, and 1 in 10 remain highly excluded.
While it’s fantastic to see that the digital divide has narrowed, the rapid rise of emerging tech and fast pace changes in our digital world puts at risk the good work that has been done in this space to achieve this goal. In fact, while the ADII indicates that over half of Australians have recently used generative AI, 1 in 4 people say they are struggling to use AI tools or apps.
We need to make sure that people are confident to understand how to use new and emerging technologies that support them in life, learning and work.
With digital skills now essential across all jobs and Generative AI predicted to be the most significant disruptor in the workforce, we know that overcoming digital exclusion is not only a social or tech issue, but an economic one. Our 2024 research by economist Nicki Hutley showed that overcoming digital exclusion could yield at least $467 million in annual benefits to the Australian economy.
We cannot afford to leave 1 in 5 people in Australia behind and if we don’t act now, the divide could increase at pace.
At Good Things, we know that by supporting people in local, welcoming community spaces they will feel more comfortable to learn something new. Through our research and work with the community on AI education to date, we have seen that a combination of high quality (and fun!) learning materials, skilful digital mentoring by community workers and opportunities to learn for free really help.
So, this National AI Week, I am excited to announce a continuation of our essential AI literacy initiative: AI for Good. With the support of Telstra, Microsoft and Linkedin, we are creating and collating AI literacy learning content for beginners, continuing community based learning through the establishment of local AI Hubs and rolling out learning through our digital literacy programs.
Our AI for Good program will continue supporting those most at risk of being left behind as the digital world rapidly changes. We’re excited to ensure that people in the community understand both the benefits and risks of AI. That they understand how to use new tools and can critically analyse information that comes to them. Through education, we support people to make more confident decisions about how they use emerging technology themselves and support their family members to do the same.
Together, we will create ethical and safe users of AI tools that benefit people’s life, learning and work.
Of course, we know that we are right at the beginning of the broad use of AI tools and we have a lot to learn ourselves about what works, what people want to learn and how best to support them. So, we will keep learning with our AI Hub partners to ensure this support is best practice and tailored to their communities needs.
We will focus on supporting people like Ester.
When Ester first went to Arise Women’s Support Association in the Brisbane suburbs, she immediately saw a new future opening up on her mobile screen. Through their AI for Good digital skills support, she was able to access essential government support services, translate information into her language, and stay better connected with her child’s NDIS plan coordinator.
Ester went from learning herself to mentoring other women in the sessions.
This is the power of digital inclusion. And, this is how we will make a more inclusive Australia as the world adapts to AI.
You can find more information on our AI for Good initiative here.
