With new program, Boston to ensure AI literacy in public high schools

Tech entrepreneur Paul English has a vision for the Boston Public Schools: all high schoolers graduating with artificial intelligence literacy.

Through a partnership with his AI Institute at UMass Boston, English, a BPS graduate, contributed $1 million to BPS to launch the program. Boston will be the first major U.S. city to ensure AI training in public high schools.

“ I look at the announcement today as something also for the Boston economy," English said Thursday at an event at the Eliot School in the North End. "Boston will become an AI forward city because of the students at Boston Public Schools.”

Curriculum development has begun and will kick into high gear this summer with teachers across the city joining the process, Mayor Michelle Wu said at the kickoff event. It's still unclear what the course will look like and which grades will have access when the program rolls out next school year.

“ [The curriculum] is really grounded in ethics and grounded in understanding how to maintain and develop creativity, leadership,” Wu said. “[To] enhance the learning that's happening, not replace or substitute for it.”

Superintendent Mary Skipper said students will also have the opportunity to take credit-bearing AI courses at UMass Boston. Skipper said the district has been building on AI with a consortium of teachers, including at the Eliot, for the past few years.

“ We are now really needing to amplify that at the high school level,” Skipper said, a way to ensure BPS students are graduating with preparation in “ technology and AI to be the responsible leaders of the next generation.”

Upstairs from the kickoff event at the Eliot, 11-year-old Enrique Ng said he created a chatbot for an assignment in his English class that month. Ng said it was programmed to help students calm down and relieve stress from homework.

“ I'd be like, well, I feel frustrated with my homework. I'll just use this AI chatbot, and then I'd feel better after talking with it,” he said.

Ng said the chatbot would give him advice, including to take a walk, eat a healthy snack or talk to a grown up.

“ You could choose to use it in a bad way. Like you could choose for it to do all of your work, do all of your essay, but you could also choose for it to help you with your essays, help you with your creativity,” said Miguel Jimenez, sitting next to Ng. “That's what I like doing, most of the time.”

Correction: A previous version of this article stated Boston would mandate AI literacy for graduates. A city spokesperson clarified that the program's goal is to ensure students are proficient at AI, but it is not yet a requirement.