Mark Harris Asks Witness How Schools Ensure AI Does Not ‘Amplify Existing Biases,’ Spread Misinformation

2 days ago

During a House Education Committee hearing on Tuesday, Rep. Mark Harris (R-NC) questioned Chris Chism, the Superintendent for Pearl Public School District, about bias in artificial intelligence systems.

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript

Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00Representative North Carolina, Mr. Harris is recognized for five minutes. Thank you,

00:04Mr. Chairman, and thank you to all of you on the panel for the incredible

00:08testimony you've given today. I appreciated the opportunity to read

00:12through your testimony that was submitted to us prior. I have a couple of

00:17questions, and really the first one is going to be to you, Mr. Chisholm. Your

00:22written testimony mentioned that an accurate or biased content is a big

00:27challenge with AI adoption, and as you pointed out, AI models are only as good

00:33as the underlying data that they're trained on, and that's what concerns me.

00:38Research from Carnegie Mellon University revealed that large language model bots

00:43trained on the Internet since 2016 show more polarization than bots trained

00:50before Donald Trump's first election. In fact, the research also showed that bots

00:55trained from books were more socially conservative than bots trained through

01:01the Internet or social media. There's, in fact, numerous examples of left-leaning

01:06political bias that shows up. When asked if a white Christian man should be

01:12ashamed, Google Gemini lists a variety of liberal buzzwords like systemic

01:17injustices and marginalized communities. When asked if a black female lesbian

01:23should be ashamed, it says absolutely not. The free version of ChatGPT is

01:30unable to acknowledge Donald Trump as the current president and even says that

01:34Joe Biden is in the White House in 2025. Now, I point all that out, Mr. Chisholm, to

01:40come back to you as superintendent of a school district there in Pearl

01:44Mississippi. How do you make sure in that role that your district's AI use doesn't

01:50amplify existing biases or spread false information? I think that's a fabulous

01:57question and that's got a lot of answers to it, but I will tell you that some of

02:01the big companies are working on this. I mean, they do realize that some of

02:05that bias is built in, and in the end, I mean, there's going to be bias in every

02:08computer program that you create. So, for us as a district, we have created our own

02:12server, so we get to do the training ourselves. So, I think that's one big

02:17advantage for us, and I will say we discussed equity as well. We are actually

02:21working with a huge internet company in Mississippi, C Spire, and we're actually

02:26working on trying to make our model available for all school districts in

02:30the state of Mississippi completely free. So, we're working on that. So, again, is

02:34there a way to script it all out? Absolutely not, not yet, but I think we're

02:38moving forward to that. So, I think it's good training and it's really having,

02:42it's good communication. It's people, when they see those things happen, it's

02:45pointing those things out, and then we can go back and make adjustments to that

02:49model, even on our end on our server. But I can tell you, again, even using the

02:53model such as ChatGPT, they know that this is a problem and they are working

02:57on it. I'm on a computer call with them about every two weeks with OpenAI, so

03:02this has been a discussion that we've had, and I don't think there's a perfect

03:05answer for it, but I do know that they are working on it, and certainly that's

03:09something that we will monitor 24 hours a day, because we want to make sure that

03:12the information that we get back is good. And I will also say, even using the

03:16larger language models like ChatGPT, if you're on the paid version, or even the

03:20free version of that, you can go in and script some of this out yourself. You

03:24know, if you tell it how you want it to respond, you tell it the websites that

03:27you would like for it to go to, to look for information. You know, I have that

03:30scripted into mine, so now I know where that information is coming from. So, I

03:34realize that now that information that's coming back is not from Wikipedia. It's

03:39good information from the sites that I determined that I want it to come from.

03:42So, there are ways, there are ways around that, even though the model itself doesn't

03:46fix it. And are you, are you finding that schools should be wary of the

03:50development behind AI bots, and be selective about the programs they use in

03:55their schools? Oh, absolutely, 100%. I think going through all of this

04:01information, and getting really good information, again, if we were to go with

04:05a company, a large company, that would be a, that would be a multi-week

04:09investigation into what they do, and how they do it, before I put it in front of

04:12kids. Got you. Thank you, sir. Dr. Raphael Behr, in your recommendations for

04:18policymakers, you mentioned that the federal role should be intentionally

04:23limited. I agree. Especially since this administration, and, and obviously the

04:28direction we're moving, will be working to eliminate the federal role in

04:32education entirely. What would you say to someone who argues that the federal role

04:36should be unlimited, rather than limited, and what kind of detrimental effects

04:41would over-regulation have on schools? Well, I think we've, we've been talking

04:46about this so much in this committee. This is moving too fast. There is nothing

04:50that the federal government would put on paper that isn't going to be outdated,

04:53even a couple of months from now. And it is imperative that states have the

04:57ability, and the flexibility, to make these decisions within their own context,

05:01and allowing districts the ability to innovate. It's critical that the federal

05:05government not play a role in defining things like AI literacy, or AI curriculum.

05:10Curriculum and content all should be left to local levels. However, I think the

05:15place that is really critical is around cybersecurity and data privacy. Okay, well

05:20thank you, Mr. Chairman. With that, I yield back.

Mark Harris Asks Witness How Schools Ensure AI Does Not ‘Amplify Existing Biases,’ Spread Misinformation

Category

Transcript

Recommended