Yup, they're using AI to develop the NZ curriculum
The Ministry of Education is using AI to develop the new curriculum for New Zealand students.
In a response to an Official Information Act request made by a member of the public and supplied to Emily Writes, the Ministry said it was using AI to “enhance development processes across the curriculum as a whole, particularly by analysing and synthesising information from international curricula and related educational frameworks.”
To do this, the Ministry is using Microsoft Copilot Chat, a commercially available AI embedded in many aspects of the Windows 11 operating system.
The Ministry response goes on to say: “It is important to note however, that Al is not used to directly author curriculum content. Instead, it supports Ministry writers by providing background research, comparative insights and thematic analysis. The ability to process and evaluate research from other jurisdictions efficiently is especially valuable as we work towards delivering a national curriculum that is internationally comparable.”
However, this does not explain precisely how AI output is being used. If it is being used for “background research” and to “process and evaluate research” then it is still entirely possible that potentially inaccurate or hallucinated content is still being copied or paraphrased into curriculum content.
The Bad Newsletter previously noted that many aspects of the draft curriculum contained what are often AI “tells,” including the too-frequent use of em-dashes and fragmentary or oddly out-of-context information. Also noted was the arbitrary nature of much new curriculum content — such as the study of “the importance of hoplites” and “the Peloponnesian Wars” by eight-year-olds — that may not be relevant to New Zealand students.
The Ministry’s response also links to another OIA release, the Ministry of Education’s “Artificial Intelligence and Generative AI Standard.”
These guidelines include the statement: “System Users MUST ensure any information generated by AI is independently checked for accuracy, reliability, and safety before it is used.”
This appears to mean that if the Ministry of Education is using Copilot to “process and evaluate research” then the AI’s evaluation must itself be being evaluated by one or more independent human reviewers.
Accordingly, the Bad Newsletter is requesting the paper trail.
In this OIA, visible on fyi.org.nz, we are asking the Ministry to release:
- all Copilot chat logs relating to curriculum development, and
- the review process that information has undergone to ensure accuracy, reliability, and safety, and
- How research or other material derived from or filtered through AI has been utilised in the draft curriculum — including copy+pasting, paraphrasing, or other methods
In our view, the Ministry has a duty to publicly disclose exactly how AI is being used in the creation of the New Zealand curriculum. Parents, teachers, and children deserve nothing less.
Because if the Ministry of Education is using AI to do its homework, why shouldn’t kids do it too?
The Ministry's response to another OIA about AI guidelines:
The Ministry's guidelines on the responsible use of AI:
More as it develops.