[Last updated: May 2020]

Artificial Intelligence (AI): The ability to understand the algorithms involved in the AI-based platforms one interacts with, and the ethical conversations happening around the development of these technologies.

Over the past several years, technologies based on AI have started changing our daily lives. Innovations are rolled out at an accelerated pace, not only in professional working environments but also at home and in schools. Thus far, there is less research on the beneficial impact of AI-based technologies specifically on adolescents. However, recent reports and studies indicate that AI is playing an increasingly important role in, for instance, the domains such as education and health and well-being.

Setting out to understand what we know and what we don’t know, the YaM team released in 2019 a flagship publication entitled Youth and Artificial Intelligence: Where We Stand. In the publication, the authors highlight some of the team’s initial learnings and exploratory questions around the ways young people may interact with and be impacted by AI technologies. The publication addresses five thematic areas: 1) Education, 2) Health and well-being, 3) Future of work, 4) Privacy and safety, and 5) Creativity and entertainment.

The publication encourages various stakeholders — including policymakers, educators, and parents and caregivers — to consider how we can empower young people to meaningfully interact with AI-based technologies to promote and bolster learning, creative expression, and well-being, while also addressing key challenges and concerns. The publication has been featured at major events like ITU’s AI for Good in Geneva and UNICEF’s Towards Global Guidance on AI and Child Rights workshop.

We have also been exploring how to translate our AI research into educational tools. We have developed several tools — co-designed with and for youth — that can be used to learn and teach about AI in group-based formal or informal learning settings. The tools focus on some of the fundamental aspects of AI systems (e.g., what is an algorithm?), while also considering the ethical considerations surrounding AI-based applications (e.g., how do algorithms shape the content one sees on their social media feed(s) and how does this impact the way one interacts with information on social media?).

Additionally, we have been developing methods to translate our insights around AI in creative and accessible ways. For example, we are working on an AI children’s book (for ages 5+) that aims to foster discussion around themes such as AI and autonomy, the interplay between gender and STEM education, and human-machine interaction. To develop this book, we brought together a multidisciplinary and diverse group of YaM team members, with individuals from backgrounds such as education, the social sciences, art, policy making, youth activism, and engineering.

We are also working on expanding our repertoire of illustrations around AI that explore various domains related to AI, such as the future of work, health and well-being, creativity, privacy and safety, and education.

Flagship publication:

• Youth and Artificial Intelligence: Where We Stand

Ongoing collaborations:

• AI for Children: Exploring how to embed child rights in the governing policies of artificial intelligence. A collaborative two-year project led by UNICEF’s Office of Global Insight and Policy — in partnership with the Government of Finland, and in collaboration with the IEEE Standards Association, the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, the World Economic Forum, the 5Rights Foundation and other organizations that form part of Generation AI — explores approaches to protecting and upholding child rights in an evolving AI world.
• The Artificial Intelligence, Society, Information and Communication (IA+SIC) Nucleus — led by Berkman Klein Faculty Associate Lionel Brossi — is a collaborative effort aiming to better understand, from an ethical and human rights perspective, the possible impacts of AI on communities and society in general.
• Inclusion in Action — Centro ISUR

Key learning resources:

• What Is an Algorithm?
• Social Media and Algorithms

To learn about how to navigate our Digital Citizenship+ (Plus) Resource Platform — home to an evolving collection of 100+ educational tools (e.g., learning experiences, visualizations, podcasts) that can be used to learn and teach about youth’s digitally connected lives — please see the following slidedeck, presented at RightsCon Tunis 2019. The presentation also offers helpful tips in terms of adapting the tools to your context.

Other publications:

• Artificial intelligence and its potential impact on children
• Why inclusion matters for the future of artificial intelligence
• We also contributed to the OECD’s book Artificial Intelligence in Society, which offers an overview of the economic, technical, political, and social landscape of AI. The book has helped shape the adoption of the OECD’s AI Principles and will serve as an analytical basis to develop the OECD’s forthcoming AI Policy Observatory, a multistakeholder center for AI public policy.
• [Open Access Book; Spanish] Inteligencia artificial y bienestar de las juventudes en América Latina and here
• [Open Access Book; Spanish] La evolución de las brechas digitales y el auge de la Inteligencia Artificial (IA)

Videos and Podcasts:

• [Spanish] video capsules AI and Inclusion of Youth / Inteligencia Artificial e Inclusión de Jóvenes
• Reflections about Conectados al Sur: Costa Rica
  • Urs Gasser
  • [Spanish] Andres Lombana
  • [Spanish] Sandra Cortesi

In the media:

• AI Innovators Should Be Listening to Kids
• O Globo, “We still need to better understand how to create and use artificial intelligence systems, says researcher”

Selected presentations:

(For more information, please email Sandra Cortesi.)

• December 2019: Presentation, “Artificial Intelligence and its Impact on Young People”, Council of Europe, Strasbourg, France.
• September 2019: Presentations, Youth and Artificial Intelligence in the context of Child Protection, Revision of the OECD Recommendation on the Protection of Children Online,OECD, Paris, France.
• November 2019: Panel, “Developing Policy Guidelines for AI and Child Rights”, Co-Hosted with UNICEF, Internet Governance Forum, Berlin, Germany
• November 2019: Presentations, “Youth and Media: Trends and Developments” and “Youth and Artificial Intelligence”, ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften, Zurich, Switzerland
• September 2019: Keynote, “Youth and AI”, Symposium on Humane Artificial Intelligence, East-West Center, Honolulu, Hawai’i
• May 2019: Keynote, “Youth and AI: Where We Stand”, AI for Good Global Summit 2018, organized by the ITU and sister United Nations agencies, Geneva, Switzerland
• January 2019: Presentation, “Youth, Artificial Intelligence, & Psychology”, Asia Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAT* Asia 2019), Hong Kong, Hong Kong
• [Urs Gasser] October 2018: Presentation, “AI in Asia and the Global Context”, Conference on AI and Commercial Law: Reimagining Trust, Governance, and Private Law Rules, Singapore Management University, Centre for AI and Data Governance, Singapore
• November 2017: Presentation, “Artificial Intelligence and Education”, (Un)Colloquium, MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, USA
• October 2017: Presentation, “Youth and Artificial Intelligence”, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
• November 2017: Presentation, Youth and the Lives of Tomorrow, Global Symposium on Artificial Intelligence & Inclusion, Rio, Brazil.

[Last updated: May 2020]

Digital citizenship (and related concepts such as digital literacy, media literacy, new media literacies, 21st century skills, or digital competence) has become a topic of growing importance among academics and policymakers alike, at the center of debate and theorization around the skills youth need to navigate and actively participate in our digital world. On a global level, a variety of stakeholders — including government, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, and academia — have adopted the term to develop and shape formal and informal learning programs that aim to help youth address the challenges and embrace the opportunities the digital environment may present.

Since 2016, the YaM team has been studying the concept of digital citizenship, aiming to answer several key questions, including:

• Why has the concept of digital citizenship become central in discussions about youth, education, and learning in the 21st century?
• How is the concept of digital citizenship similar to or different from other concepts, such as digital literacy, media literacy, new media literacies, 21st century skills, or digital competence?
• Based on a mapping of 35 frameworks, what does the current digital citizenship landscape address, and to what extent are youth’s voices included in the development, implementation, and evaluation of digital citizenship initiatives?
• What are key considerations for learning spaces and meaningful youth engagement?
• How can we address underexplored areas, such as artificial intelligence and data?

Read Youth and Digital Citizenship+ (Plus): Understanding Skills for a Digital World to explore this topic.

Flagship publication:

• Youth and Digital Citizenship+ (Plus): Understanding Skills for a Digital World

Ongoing collaborations:

• Conectados al Sur
• HabLatam

Key learning resources:

• Our Digital Citizenship+ (Plus) Resource Platform (DCPR) hosts an evolving collection of free learning experiences, visualizations, and other educational resources designed and maintained by us. Many of these learning resources are available in over 35 languages! To view the translations, for each resource, please scroll down to “All Languages.” Additional languages will be added over time. To learn about how to navigate our Digital Citizenship+ (Plus) Resource Platform — home to an evolving collection of 100+ educational tools (e.g., learning experiences, visualizations, podcasts) that can be used to learn and teach about youth’s digitally connected lives — please see the following slidedeck, presented at RightsCon Tunis 2019. The presentation also offers helpful tips in terms of adapting the tools to your context.
  • Sharing Learning Tools for Youth Digital Life offers an overview of how we developed our educational platform — the Digital Citizenship+ (Plus) Resource Platform — home to an evolving collection of more than 100 tools (e.g., learning experiences, visualizations, podcasts) that can be used to learn and teach about the 17 evolving areas, and skills within them, we believe are important for youth to meaningfully engage online.

Other publications:

• Ciudadanía Digital + (Plus): Hacia una noción fluida y holística de las habilidades para el siglo XXI. Revista Aprendizaje +. Fundación Ceibal: Montevideo, Uruguay. pp. 31-33

Selected presentations:

(For more information, please email Sandra Cortesi.)

• [Urs Gasser] November 2019: Presentation,“The Evolving Children’s Digital Rights Discourse”, Digital Lives: Families in the Age of the Internet Conference, Swiss Institute of Comparative Law and University of Geneva, Lausanne
• November 2019: Presentation, “The Next Generation and Digital Media”, Schmidheiny Foundation, Interlaken, Switzerland.
• November 2019: Panel, “Youth, Education, and Digital Technology”, Festival of Technology, Polytechnic of Turin, Turin, Italy
• September 2019: Presentation, “Youth and Digital Citizenship” in the context of Child Protection, Revision of the OECD Recommendation on the Protection of Children Online, OECD, Paris, France.
• October 2018: Keynote, “How Children Grow Up in a Digital Environment”, Expert Consultation by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), workshop “Protection of Children in a Connected World” hosted by the University of Zurich Digital Society Initiative, with the support of the Swiss Government and co-sponsored by the Korean Government, Zurich, Switzerland
• January 2018: Presentation, “Digital Citizenship”, University of Costa Rica, San Jose, Costa Rica