Trends

AI-Powered Civic Education

Market Quickfacts

$3.6 B

Global market size of AI in education for 2023

71%

Market share for AI-powered learning solution segment

$73.7 B

Forecasted AI in education market valuation by 2033

Local Governance

As AI regulation is tackled at the federal level, many city governments are harnessing generative AI to keep their citizenry informed. They City of San Jose led this charge when they developed the GovAI Coalition, comprising representatives from 150 local governments across the country. Their mission is to foster “responsible use of AI in the administration of public services” so that local governments can develop their own AI governance programs (City of San Jose, 2023). Johns Hopkins University invests in a similar effort through their City AI Connect platform which helps cities “trial and advance generative artificial intelligence to improve city services” (Bloomberg Philanthropies, 2023). These initiatives remind us that an informed, engaged citizenry is critical to a healthy democracy, and that AI can aid in encouraging civic participation in and beyond K-12 classrooms.

Some cities have proactively infused AI into their community education and programming. The City of Denver developed a 24/7 virtual chat assistant, Sunny, that helps residents with things like registering to vote at the DMV to asking about city services in a whopping 72 languages (Alvarez, 2024). The city is committed to this feature’s future, stating that “the more questions [residents] ask Sunny, the smarter Sunny gets” (Alvarez, 2024).

But while these developments are exciting, critics are unpleased with these cities using emerging and experimental technologies. New York City received backlash after their digital assistant, MyCity Chatbot, consistently produced misleading, incomplete, or “outright false information.” For example, the bot incorrectly reported that employers are permitted by law to “take a cut” of service workers’ tips, which contradicts policies set by the U.S. Department of Labor (Wood, 2024). As of this report’s publication, NYC has yet to remove their faulty chatbot to continue public testing, a move which ACLU representatives have called “inexcusable” (Wood, 2024). Much like the consequences of misinformation, technological mishaps like these run the risk of eroding public trust in democracy and AI systems in general. Thus, city governments are faced with the pressure of keeping pace with AI advancements while thoroughly performing due diligence in educational initiatives.

Create Responsibly

Media literacy and civic education have long prepared students to “[comprehend] information and ideas, analyze messages, and [evaluate] the quality and credibility of content” they consume (Hobbs & Jensen, 2009). Now, civic education also teaches students how to leverage digital tools to generate content responsibly while making sense of the messages they consume. New media forms, such as genAI content, enable students to draw upon their own personal experiences, interests, and beliefs to produce creative expressions of civil society (Hobbs & Jensen, 2009).

Researchers have considered how students can recognize the “ethical concerns about the [AI] generation of fake media…[by] understanding how these tools work” (Ali et al., 2024). A study from MIT facilitated a “Dreaming with AI” workshop for high school students, where students used text-to-image generation and chatbots to reflect on the ethical implications of generative AI, including “policies for use of these tools in classrooms” (Ali et al., 2024). In this exercise, students learned not only how to navigate AI tools, but also used them to depict the social benefits and harms of these same tools.

Another study asked a classroom of students to consider the societal consequences of deepfakes to the spread of misinformation. This activity began with a demonstration of generative AI tools for creation, including how to generate Deepfakes. Students then learned cues to help identify deepfakes, recognizing that “generative media may be believable, but not necessarily true” (Ali et al., 2021). Finally, students discussed the importance of being a “responsible creator…and stakeholder of [these] technologies” by considering the lasting effects of misinformation (Ali et al., 2021). These studies show an increasing focus in civic education on preparing students to consume and create AI-generated media responsibly.

Gamification & Simulation

Gamified curriculum has grown in the edtech market for its high student engagement. A popular form of gameplay in education includes simulation or scenario-based learning. Rather than just recalling static information, simulated learning immerses students in a real-world context, guiding them through problem-solving and enabling interactivity in authentic scenarios (Rivers & Bertoli, 2024).

iThrive Sim, a digital game for high school humanities classrooms, was designed to do just that, challenging students to “play central roles within narratives based in history and current events” (Rivers & Bertoli, 2024). A pilot test immersed students in the Crisis Management Team for the President of the United States. Students were guided through the problem-solving process as they analyzed data, utilized primary source documents, interpreted the Constitution, and explored the inner-workings of the executive branch first-hand (Rivers & Bertoli, 2024). Teachers that participated in the pilot were excited by how engaged and collaborative their students were as they practiced decision-making and problem-solving.

While civics classrooms have used simulations long before the digital age, genAI presents opportunities for facilitating scenario-based learning. Teachflow, an AI-driven lesson generator for teachers, published civic education lesson examples that harness AI tools and gamification techniques. In addition to decision-making in simulated governments, other ideas included role-playing as community activists, members of a classroom town hall, or House representatives campaigning for re-election (Teachflow, 2023). Using intelligent tools to lead authentic, experiential learning enables students to practice real-world skills, engage with civics curriculum, understand their own role within civil society, and navigate personalized, adaptive learning paths (Teachflow, 2023).