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WEF Expert Urges AI Literacy and Stronger Child Safety
Cathy Li, an artificial intelligence expert at the World Economic Forum, says children need to learn how AI works.
They should know that AI can make mistakes and that people sometimes need to check its answers.
AI may help children learn, create and use different languages.
But it can also show harmful content or put children's privacy at risk.
Li says AI tools should be tested in India's many languages and different settings.
Safety rules should fit children's ages and what each tool can do.
Parents, teachers and children should help test AI, and safety controls should be easy to use.
She says safety and new ideas can go together.
Cathy Li of the World Economic Forum called for adding AI literacy to India's education curriculum.
She urged companies and public institutions to make child-safety assessments and testing part of AI development.
AI could support children's education, creativity and language access, but may also expose them to harmful content, manipulation and privacy risks.
Li said safeguards should be tested across India's languages, cultures, connectivity levels and family and education settings.
She recommended clear baseline protections, simple safety tools, human oversight and involvement of children, caregivers and educators.
- Who
- Cathy Li, Head of the Centre for AI Excellence at the World Economic Forum, speaking about the WEF whitepaper on children's safety and well-being in the age of AI.
- What
- Li called for AI literacy in India's education curriculum and stronger incentives and safeguards to protect children using AI.
- Where
- New Delhi, with recommendations focused on India.
- When
- October 11; the article does not specify the year.
- Why
- AI brings potential benefits for children's learning and creativity as well as risks including harmful content, manipulation, privacy risks and exploitation.
Key facts
- Expert
- Cathy Li, Head of the Centre for AI Excellence at the World Economic Forum
- Report
- Children's Safety and Well-Being in the Age of AI: Best Practices and Incentives
- Education recommendation
- Integrate AI literacy into education so children can question AI outputs, verify information and know when human judgment is needed.
- Testing recommendation
- Assess AI systems across India's languages, cultures, connectivity levels and device access.
- Safety recommendation
- Build child-safety and child-rights assessments into systems likely to be used by children.
- Company incentives
- Use procurement, funding and independent assurance to encourage investment in child safety.
- Suggested participants
- Children, educators, caregivers and child-safety experts should be involved in testing systems.
Quotes
Cathy Li
Head of the Centre for AI Excellence at the World Economic Forum and co-author of the cited whitepaper.
“Children need to understand where AI can fail, how to verify information and when human judgement is needed. Second, build safety and child-rights assessments into systems likely to be used by children.”
livemint.com
“And finally, don't treat safety and innovation as competing goals. Children are going to grow up with AI. The objective should be to give them the skills and protection to use it well.”
livemint.com
Sources
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