In the era of digital transformation, artificial intelligence (AI), especially generative AI, is playing an increasingly important role in our everyday lives and in the world of work. The ability to not only use AI technologies, but also to understand and critically evaluate them, is increasingly becoming a crucial skill. Against this backdrop, the topic of AI literacy, i.e., education in the field of artificial intelligence, is gaining in importance. More specifically, generative AI literacy is the focus of our AIrise project, which aims to research and promote understanding and skills in dealing with generative AI systems.
The main objective of AIrise is to investigate and define the various aspects of AI literacy and generative AI literacy. These include:
- Basic understanding of AI and generative AI: Research is being conducted to determine how deeply basic knowledge of AI, and generative AI in particular, is anchored in different population groups and professional fields.
- Ethics and social impact: Another area of investigation is to assess the awareness of and opinions on ethical aspects and the social impact of generative AI technologies.
- Practical application skills: The project evaluates people’s experiences with generative AI tools to date, the use cases and areas in which they use them, and the skills required to do so.
- Critical evaluation of AI outputs: Another important part of the project involves critically examining how people reflect on, evaluate, and question the results of AI systems.
AIrise is based on an extensive survey with quantitative and qualitative components in the fields of AI and generative AI, as well as on gray literature in the form of practical case studies and experience gained from AI-themed courses at the University of Hamburg.
The AIrise project aims to develop a deeper understanding of the importance and challenges of AI literacy and generative AI literacy. Society should strive to increase AI skills in order to improve equal opportunities, promote innovation, and make the full potential of the technology accessible to a wider range of users. Our findings can, for example, support the future development of curricula and training concepts such as courses, workshops, and similar formats.
The content of the project was adjusted on February 1, 2024, due to a change in the student team.
The content of the project was adjusted on February 1, 2024, due to a change in the student team.