Students are Debating Their Way to AI Literacy

With your support, more could

There are many debates amongst adults as to exactly what constitutes “AI literacy” and how to teach it in schools.

While we adults have these debates, many students are off debating their way to AI literacy – learning the basics of AI, understanding how AI will impact the world, and using it in creative ways to help prepare for their debates.

Here are just a few examples –

(1)   Last spring (2024), the Ronald Reagan Foundation sponsored the Great Communicator series with a topic centered around whether generative AI should be used in schools. More than 400 students participated in more than 800 debates about this topic.

(2)   This upcoming year, thousands of high school students will debate whether the protection of intellectual property should be increased. Debaters using this resolution offer specific policy proposals; in this instance, they make specific advocacy for a particular protection. As debaters begin preparing for next year, the most popular proposals are to protect the works of existing artists against uncompensated AI model training and to allow Ais to file patents. AI and its impending developments will be at the center of the debates.

(3)   In college debate, students debating in the L-D format will debate a resolution related to the regulation of artificial intelligence.

(4)   In 2022-3, college policy debaters argued a topic about vesting legal rights in AI.

Debates over AI will inevitably come up in debates over related topics such as energy and environmental regulations.

Next year, tens of thousands of students with access to speech & debate opportunities will spend nine months learning about AI. Since they are participating in debate, they will also develop essential communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and communication skills along the way to strengthening their metacognitive development. These “Cs,” combined with a knowledge of how to use AI, are considered the most important job skills,  

Unfortunately, students who have the most access to AI, and especially access to debate, tend to be higher SES students, compounding the inequalities of both access and skills.

Fortunately, there is a simple solution to this problem: Support the nation’s urban debate leagues by sponsoring or co-applying for funding to help students learn about AI and how to debate.  The NYC Urban Debate League, where I worked for many years, is my favorite.

The reality is that debate is the secret sauce to both AI literacy and metacognitive development. And since they are engaged in debate, they will be more likely to remember the content.

Please consider working with me to sponsor or raise funds to bring AI literacy and debate to all students. Your organization can instantly claim 4,000+ students are developing AI literacy, and you can make a big difference in kids’ lives.

Of course, we outline the synergy between AI and debate (and other deep learning approaches) in our book.