I, chatbot: How ‘human’ should chatbots be?

Suitable for 14–19-year olds (secondary and high schools, and college), this article and accompanying activity sheet can be used in the classroom, in STEM clubs and at home.

This resource links to KS4 and KS5 computer science.

It can also be used as a careers resource and links to Gatsby Benchmarks:
Gatsby Benchmark 2: Learning from career and labour market information
Gatsby Benchmark 4: Linking curriculum learning to careers

• This teaching resource explains the work of Dr Oli Buckley, an associate professor in cyber security at the University of East Anglia, UK. He is investigating ways to optimise chatbot technology for individuals and increase the trust needed for ensuing conversations to help users.

• This resource also contains an interview with Oli and offers an insight into careers in computer science. If your students have questions for Oli, they can send the questions to him online by visiting the Futurum link below, scrolling down to the end and typing in the question(s). Oli will respond!

• The activity sheet provides ‘talking points’ (based on Bloom’s Taxonomy) to prompt students to reflect on Oli’s research and encourages them to explore how much and in what context people are willing to share different types of sensitive information with chatbots.

This resource was first published on Futurum Careers, a free online resource and magazine aimed at encouraging 14-19-year-olds worldwide to pursue careers in science, tech, engineering, maths, medicine (STEM) and social sciences, humanities and the arts for people and the economy (SHAPE).

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