Artificial Intelligence

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:56): My question is to the Minister for Education, Training and Skills. Can the minister confirm there have been no reported examples of the use of AI during the SACE exams over the last two weeks?

The Hon. B.I. BOYER (Wright—Minister for Education, Training and Skills) (14:56): I thank the member for Morialta. I am not aware of any. I assume that what the member for Morialta is getting at here is that there has been some inappropriate use of AI to achieve or gain some kind of unfair advantage in those exams. None have been reported to me. I am happy to go away and ask a question around whether or not that has occurred.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. B.I. BOYER: It's fantastic being lectured to by the member for Flinders about anything to do with intelligence, artificial or otherwise, but there you go.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. B.I. BOYER: Amazing!

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister has the call.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. B.I. BOYER: Listen up. But it does go to highlight, I think—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. B.I. BOYER: That was off the record, okay?

The SPEAKER: Minister, I think you'll find it's not.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister has the call.

The Hon. B.I. BOYER: It does highlight the complications that AI will pose for not just society but the education system, and despite the fact that we have taken a different position here in South Australia with trialling our own version of ChatGPT, which we co-designed with Microsoft, which has a whole lot of other extra security protocols built in to make sure it is safe.

We have done that because we accept that, whether or not we like AI, and I am certainly of the position that there are upsides and lots of downsides, we need to teach our young people in our schooling system how to use it safely. We need to teach them what those pitfalls are, because I am certainly of the opinion that one of the measures of the success of any education system is how it prepares the young people who exit it for the world that will greet them, and the world of today, let alone the world of tomorrow, has AI as a very keen and important part of it.

I want to make sure that the young people in the South Australian system leave their high school with some knowledge of how to use it in a safe manner. But, of course, there is no application for doing that in exams, and I would take any instances of that very seriously, as I am sure the SACE Board would as well. I am very happy to make inquiries on the member for Morialta's behalf about whether there have been any instances of that in this exam period.