‘AI is not primarily a technology issue. It is a governance issue’

Samira Sadeghi, Director of Trust Governance from the Confederation of School Trusts (CST) has written an article for Schools Week on AI.

We all know that Artificial intelligence is already embedded in our school lives. She asks how governing boards are approaching the subject. She notes that for some, the answer is to wait.  “Wait for regulation. Wait for guidance. Wait until the technology stabilises. Wait until somebody else has worked out the risks. But governance exists precisely because certainty rarely arrives.”

She notes that Trust boards routinely make decisions in conditions of uncertainty. They oversee safeguarding without being safeguarding specialists, they make decisions about finance, estates, procurement, workforce strategy, and organisational risk without needing to be professional accountants, surveyors, lawyers or human resources practitioners.

Recognising this fact CST have developed Governing AI in school trusts, a new publication in conjunction with TransforMATive.

She concludes; “The governance challenge is therefore not to create an entirely new model for governing AI. It is to apply enduring governance principles to a new and fast-moving context. This means asking sensible questions about how and where AI is used, who is affected, what training do we need and where should human judgment remain non-negotiable?

AI may be new. The principles of good governance are not. And that is precisely why school trusts are better prepared for this challenge than many people realise.”