Malcolm Pein, CEO and Founder of Chess in Schools and Communities said:
“We are excited to be working with Google DeepMind and UCL Academy to deliver an innovative AI course to students. Delivered by teachers at UCL Academy and CSC, the course will go beyond the standard A-level computer science curriculum and connect state school students with AI experts in academia and industry to help them build knowledge, skills, and confidence to follow their passion for AI at university.”
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Obum Ekeke, OBE, Head of Education Partnerships at Google DeepMind, said:
“At Google DeepMind, we have a long-term vision to support the next generation of AI creators, ensuring they truly represent the wider world. This vision starts with education. By focusing on education at an early age and making science and AI feel relevant and accessible to all, we can help break down the barriers that are leading to underrepresentation in this field. We hope that through using chess as a vehicle to learn more about AI and develop relevant skills, this education programme can help instil confidence in students from all backgrounds, and eventually play a part in creating a more inclusive and accessible global AI ecosystem.”
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Robin Street, Co-Principal of UCL Academy said:
“Everyone everywhere is rightly talking about how AI will change education and indeed the wider world. Schools work hard every hour, every day to provide the best education they can to prepare their students for the modern world. For us to be working with CSC and Google DeepMind on such an important and innovative project is a game changer. We believe the work we will all be doing will help not only a generation of our own. Students will be inspired by AI, but also create a programme that can be shared more widely across many schools as a way to build this vital content into their curricula.”
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Chess is a game of perfect information and has been described as a ‘petri dish’ for AI research. In 2017, the research lab introduced AlphaZero, the first computer chess entity to use the AI technique of reinforcement learning. By playing itself 49 million times, AlphaZero created its own data and surpassed the playing level of any previous chess engine based on brute force calculation or software. AlphaZero has since inspired new research breakthroughs and AI applications.
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Google DeepMind is collaborating with a number of education partners to tackle school-level barriers to underrepresentation in AI and develop the next generation of AI creators.