A debate game about societal impacts of Artificial Intelligence

TL;DR

This paper introduces an interactive debate game designed to educate the public about AI's societal impacts, enhancing understanding and argumentation skills through simulated municipal council discussions.

Contribution

It presents a novel educational tool that simulates AI decision-making debates, promoting awareness and critical thinking about AI among students.

Findings

Effective in raising AI awareness

Improves argumentation skills

Enhances listening skills

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) is now ubiquitous in our lives, and we regularly experience its decisions. Yet, the general public has very little knowledge about how it works, its use of data, its lack of objectivity, and its fallibility. In line with UNESCO recommendations, we believe that a basic understanding of AI algorithms is essential to enable everyone to make informed choices about using them and entrusting them with personal data. To this end, we propose a debate game simulating a municipal council gathered to choose between three AI solutions proposed by a company to address a societal problem. This interactive tool is available for free download online. The results of the initial sessions demonstrate its value, not only for raising awareness about AI but also for developing argumentation and listening skills in students.