Ethical interaction with AI

How do your students interact with AI? As this technology becomes more present in our everyday lives, it further permeates into our social and educational settings.

At MOD., our current exhibition features three AI "meta-humans" – an interactive exhibit where visitors engage with AI characters that have life-like features and voices. These interactions have raised questions about how we communicate with AI agents and what this means for our relationships both digital and human. When young people encounter AI that looks and sounds human, how do they choose to interact? What does this tell us about empathy, respect, and the social skills we're developing in an increasingly AI-integrated world? What happens when young people choose to treat them poorly or even abusively? These observations have opened up important conversations about digital citizenship and the ways our interactions with AI might reflect or shape how we treat others.

This is a new area of consideration for the museum, and we would like to open this discussion to educators and a panel of researchers approaching similar scenarios or areas of thought.

This professional development opportunity will be a hybrid session presented both online and in-person at MOD. Join us in conversation with the following researchers:

Dr Rebecca Marrone, UniSA Education Futures, has a background in Educational Psychology, and her research is primarily in the fields of creativity, wellbeing, and human and artificial cognition. More specifically, Rebecca researches the impact of technology on wellbeing with a particular emphasis on how AI impacts teacher and student wellbeing.

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Dr Debbie Devis, UniSA Education Futures works with systems-theoretical educational design and cultural historical activity theory. Looking at how culture and history contributes to behaviours, what can emerge from these behaviours, and how AI challenges or perpetuates these cultures.

Debbie will bring her experience in this area to consider the question, “how do we come up with a complex response to such a complex issue?”

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Kellie Britnell, E-Safety Commissioner, has over 16 years’ experience working in the online safety space and leads a talented team supporting eSafety’s national awareness and training initiatives.

As a former educator, Kellie’s interest in AI Companions was sparked by an enquiry to her team in 2024. Over the past year, eSafety has taken significant steps to define and deliver both the regulatory and educational responses to AI technologies.