This is a series of five webinars to support your AI maturity journey. Following the introduction to AI maturity model we will be covering a range of topics from across the model to both improve members AI understanding & awareness and to inspire. There have recently been huge advances in the ability of AI to generate content. This includes the creation of text, images and computer code, through technologies such as GPT-3, DALLE-2 and Stable Diffusion. This has resulted in a new and growing field of tools that have the potential to disrupt assessment processes – both in positive and negative ways.

The initiative – which has been welcomed by global technology companies including Amazon Web Services, Google, and Microsoft – is led by the education and technology not-for-profit, Jisc, and supported by innovation-focused universities and colleges throughout the UK. It will initially be staffed by a dedicated team of seven AI experts, plus consultants and partners from industry and education. The National Centre supports the government's AI Strategy, which the digital secretary, Oliver Dowden, announced in March, saying: "Unleashing the power of AI is a top priority". Yet while AI is predicted to increase our national GDP by 10.3% by 2030, and despite Office for Artificial Intelligence estimates that AI could boost productivity in some industries by 30%, a lack of investment in AI for education is endangering the UK's global competitiveness. Nationally, we are yet to meaningfully embed technology within higher and further education.

As a contributor to The Fourth Education Revolution, Sir Anthony Seldon's new book on artificial intelligence (AI) in education, I've been thinking a lot recently about how AI could help in teaching and learning. Perhaps a few years from now we'll see widespread use of "digital tutors" that help reduce teacher workload by coaching and mentoring learners, building on the likes of Siri and Alexa. But there's also a darker side that we need to be wary of. It emerges that a pupil has been cheating by submitting homework assignments generated by an artificial intelligence. Another pupil has pranked the school's IT systems by feeding them false data, resulting in the heating being turned up to full blast on the hottest day of the year.