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The Disinformation Games

Your safe space for games and challenges related to misinformation and disinformation!

 

Case study: Artificial Intelligence -  Opportunity, Danger or Both?

AI: Opportunity, Danger or Both?

Recommended for: 16 year old students or older

Available building blocks: 4

Tags: artificial intelligence, technology, robots, fake news

Here are a few helpful tips and advice from the people on the De Facto team who developed and worked on the case studies:

Difficulty level
All case studies were designed for learners in upper-secondary education, higher education and adult education.

Resources
As each building block of any case study comes with a different mix of resources, the difficulty level can be adjusted by:

  • controlling the mix of resources and taking out more difficult texts (e.g. scientific papers) and replacing them with more easily accessible language in videos or popular blogs;
  • controlling the number of resources to work with in a given training session;
  • allowing learners to search and come up with a selection of resources themselves.

Group size
Feel free to adjust the group size and/or the learning methods to make a case study more relevant to the specific needs of your learners.

Language versions
De Facto’s case studies are a product of multinational cooperation. You will notice that resources vary, sometimes significantly, across the different language versions. Being the common working language of the team, it is the English version of the case studies which is most complete, actual and elaborate. See this for yourself when you are choosing a topic to work on, and compare your own language version with the lead version in English. Feel free to combine resources and methods!

Tools
Check the De Facto’s page dedicated to digital tools which can help an educator to work with the case studies more effectively. Use of ICT tools can make a training session on disinformation more practical and engaging for learners.

Tips for educators

Building block 1. What is artificial intelligence?

Introduction to why AI is important to the learners lives being taught. Introduce basic concepts and an overview of the influence it has on their lives.

Suggested resources

1. Boston dynamics robot uprising
https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2019/6/17/18681682/boston-dynamics-robot-uprising-parody-video-cgi-fake [Open from webarchive if link broken/inactive]

2. Robo-journalism: How a computer describes a sports match
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-34204052 [Open from webarchive if link broken/inactive]

3. Ready for robot lawyers: how students can prepare for the future of law
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2017/jul/31/ready-for-robot-lawyers-how-students-can-prepare-for-the-future-of-law [Open from webarchive if link broken/inactive]

4. 5 ways AI changes tax
http://usblogs.pwc.com/emerging-technology/5-ways-ai-changes-tax/ [Open from webarchive if link broken/inactive]

 

Video

Watson computer wins at Jeopardy

Learning outcomes

The learning outcomes represent the competences which learners are expected to develop as a result of the training intervention:

  1. Understand the field of AI and the main areas of possible disruption.
  2. Appreciate the purpose of sample information.
  3. Understand how AI might influence us via false information.

Suggested teaching methods

We plan to use some standard classroom practices:
> Instructor led sessions to introduce ideas and guide discussions.
> Small group work to consolidate and support learning.
> Short quizzes for fun and consolidation.
> Plenary sessions to check understanding.

 

Suggested learning activities

1.5 to 2 hour per lesson over 2 sessions.
The structure of the class work related to the case study will be roughly as follows:

> Lesson 1: Introduction to DeFacto and the overall aims of the project, discussion of significance of false information. Get a feel for the student’s current take on it (30). Individual work to find articles they “know” to be “true” (15). Discuss the 4 pillars in some detail and get students to work in groups or pairs to think about what they currently understand about the concepts and what they find difficult (30). Come up with one example to support one of the pillars. Group work on what they found in terms of support material from previous session (15). Session lead on deconstructing some of the ideas presented. Share some research on mis/dis and its impact. HW: come up with an idea of how they could teach the idea to others (15-30).

> Lesson 2: Introduce the analogue game and spend some time in groups trying it (60). Plenary discussion on how effective/not it is. Suggest one improvement to game Introduce digital version and allow them to try (30). Discuss some of the design ideas around it and get feedback on their views. Try the app and track their feelings Discuss the process and their feelings on mis/mal/dis information and their knowledge of how it can be addressed with DeFacto elements. Get their feedback on what they feel the future holds for them as a result (30).

De Facto pillars

Motivated Cognition: Question and answer session with learners to determine if they value some fake info over others. What is the motivation, if any, that drives acceptance or otherwise. Reinforce the psychological nature of the info.

Systemic Causality: Begin to explore in small groups if there are links between different forms of info generated by AI. What is the causal link, if any?

Frames and Framing: Use class based discussion of the concepts in order to create a reference frame for further work.

Equivalence and Emphasis Frames: Explore in groups if equivalence exists in order to make the material more acceptable.

Additional tools

De Facto app
Analogue board game and cards

Here are a few helpful tips and advice from the people on the De Facto team who developed and worked on the case studies:

Difficulty level
All case studies were designed for learners in upper-secondary education, higher education and adult education.

Resources
As each building block of any case study comes with a different mix of resources, the difficulty level can be adjusted by:

  • controlling the mix of resources and taking out more difficult texts (e.g. scientific papers) and replacing them with more easily accessible language in videos or popular blogs;
  • controlling the number of resources to work with in a given training session;
  • allowing learners to search and come up with a selection of resources themselves.

Group size
Feel free to adjust the group size and/or the learning methods to make a case study more relevant to the specific needs of your learners.

Language versions
De Facto’s case studies are a product of multinational cooperation. You will notice that resources vary, sometimes significantly, across the different language versions. Being the common working language of the team, it is the English version of the case studies which is most complete, actual and elaborate. See this for yourself when you are choosing a topic to work on, and compare your own language version with the lead version in English. Feel free to combine resources and methods!

Tools
Check the De Facto’s page dedicated to digital tools which can help an educator to work with the case studies more effectively. Use of ICT tools can make a training session on disinformation more practical and engaging for learners.

Tips for educators

Warning

You have selected a topic from the Disinformation Games area. Please be advised that this area hosts, or links to, resources that contain misinformation or disinformation. The presence of such materials is to assist in developing and sustaining skills for navigating and detecting disinformation. To achieve this goal – and with clear intent – none of the materials are explicitly marked as true or not true.