Ministers are keen to test out whether artificial intelligence could help schools provide careers advice and propose interventions for vulnerable children as part of an education “hackathon” run by a firm linked to the Vote Leave campaign. Gillian Keegan, education secretary, believes AI could have 鈥渉uge potential to transform鈥 education including personalised support for pupils and helping with teacher workload. To test ideas, the Department for Education a 鈥渉ackathon鈥 later this month working with leading school trusts and the National Institute of Teaching. Tech firm Faculty AI will help run the events under a 拢350,000 contract to 鈥渦nderstand possible use cases for generative AI in education,鈥 according to contract documents seen by Schools Week. The Guardian contract was supplying data science services to the Vote Leave campaign, which Dominic Cummings ran before becoming Boris Johnson鈥檚 chief adviser. Former academies minister Lord Agnew also in the company. The Guardian estimated these were worth 拢90,000 in 2020. The company鈥檚 contract states it will collaborate with DfE and pedagogical experts appointed by the department to create a series of 20 鈥渦se cases鈥 to be tested at hackathons. DfE ‘interested’ to try AI in EHCP process While DfE and Faculty will agree on the details, the department included some examples of what they 鈥渨ould be most interested in鈥 testing. For management and administrative processes, this could include whether AI could 鈥渟ummarise an EHCP and make recommendations for interventions鈥 or 鈥渃reate a policy document on phone usage on school premises鈥. For teaching, DfE is interested in whether it could 鈥渕ark a piece of year 12 English coursework鈥 or 鈥減roduce an end-of-unit formative assessment for 鈥楾he Vikings鈥 in year 4鈥. AI: how are schools using the technology in classrooms? Finally for pupils, example uses could be 鈥渃areers advice for someone selecting the subjects they intend to take for their GCSEs鈥 and 鈥渁ct as a historical figure to explain historical event in context鈥. It will build a 鈥減roof-of-concept鈥 generative AI tool and test it with users before analysing the results. For those scenarios that were unsuccessful during the hackathon, Faculty will see whether AI can be trained to complete those tasks.聽 The DfE told Schools Week that any examples at this stage are just “illustrative”. They would not support the use of AI to “draft personalised plans or guidance without expert human involvement”. Solutions shared with workload taskforce In a press release, DfE said the best of the solutions will be shared with its new workload reduction taskforce and a demo of the tools will be made available to schools to test. Faculty鈥檚 contract states the project 鈥渉as significant ministerial and prime ministerial interest鈥 and was 鈥渢herefore highly important that we can conduct this research in a timely and comprehensive manner鈥. They were contracted through the Crown Commercial Service framework. DfE said it was a “fair, open and competitive tender process”. Roger Taylor, former Ofqual chair, will be a senior advisor on the programme. Faculty AI said it has never been political. It decided after the referendum to stop working in politics because it was distracting from its work to help organisations harness the power of AI. The National Audit Office found “no evidence” Agnew in the awarding of contracts to Faculty during the pandemic. Tom Nixon, director of government at Faculty AI, said AI is 鈥渢he defining technology of our generation – and now is the time to safely bring its vast benefits to schools鈥. 鈥淔rom creating timetables and lesson resources, to supporting students with personalised feedback, AI has the power to cut workloads and improve young people鈥檚 education鈥. ‘Time to bring AI benefits to schools’ NIoT will also work on the project, which will bring teachers and leaders together including from Harris Federation, Star Academies, Outwood Grange Academies Trust and Inspiration Trust, DfE said. Dr Calum Davey, NIoT鈥檚 executive director of research, said it is 鈥減roud to work with Faculty to connect the experts in AI technology with the experts in the classroom. Our researchers will be listening to those involved and sharing what we learn鈥. Hackathon results will be published alongside evidence from DfE鈥檚 call for evidence on AI in November. Keegan said to 鈥渞eap the benefits鈥 of AI in education 鈥渨e need to improve our understanding of how AI works and safely鈥. 鈥淧articipants of the hackathons will be supported by Faculty AI and the National Institute of Teaching to experiment and put forward solutions, paving the way for the future.鈥