In primary schools, China is using AI headbands to track productivity during class. In a video from the Wall Street Journal, they explain that different colors on the band represent what the student is doing. Red means a student is deeply focussed, blue means that a student is distracted, and white means that a student is offline. The headband they are using has three electrodes, two behind the ears and one on the forehead. The sensors pick up electrical signals from neurons in your brain. This information is sent in real time to the teacher’s computer to track productivity. The technology being used in the headbands is called electroencephalography (EEG) (WSJ). This form of technology is very advanced, and is technology that is mainly used by doctors in hospitals and labs. Even though this technology is very advanced, it is susceptible to error so if a student itches themselves or makes a slight fidget, the machine can record a false reading. Despite this, most teachers are saying that because of the headbands, students are doing a better job at paying attention in class. With this, there is also some backlash, because many students are talking about how the bands are uncomfortable, and how the band creates pressure because many students are getting disciplined by parents for low concentration scores. Regardless of some students’ opinions, scores have been at an all time high because of  the bands, and they will most definitely be used in the future. 

Monitoring systems are also being used in classrooms to track your mood throughout class to see if you are focusing well. Classrooms in China are implementing an AI camera program that will track every time you yawn, put your head down, and go on your phone. This information can also be easily accessed, and is automatically sent to parents and teachers. Schools also use “Smart Uniforms” that can track their location to make sure that students are attending classes. A lot of people view this also as a human rights violation because they are watching your every move during class, but many people also understand that this is the start of AI Education, and if it is for the country’s development, people will support it. Even if people are against it, the government is already making the transition to AI Education putting billions of dollars into the project. One of the concerns from the use of AI software in the classroom is where the information is going. Most of the information that is being recorded for the classroom is being given to government funded research projects. Although this might seem alarming to some people, most parents when asked if they cared that their kid’s information was being used by the government were indifferent, even if the programs didn’t have privacy protection at all, which was the majority of them. Overall, as China makes a huge push for implementing AI into the real world, China determined that over 200 million students have been able to raise their grades because of AI in their classes (WSJ).

Sources:

Wall Street Journal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMLsHI8aV0g