College of Education & Human Development Learning Sciences Assistant Professor Min Kyu Kim and College of Arts and Sciences Associate Professor Daniel Takabi received a three-year, $399,681 grant from the National Science Foundation for an interdisciplinary project on artificial intelligence (AI) and privacy.
In their grant project, entitled, “Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC): EDU: Secure and Private Artificial Intelligence,” Kim and Takabi are developing instructional modules and hands-on labs for a new course called “Private AI,” which teaches students to use certain techniques to address various privacy challenges in AI systems. They are also creating manuals to help teachers integrate the modules into their curriculum.
“Most students who take AI-related courses and security and privacy-related course are not familiar with the security and privacy issues of AI systems. Consequently, they may develop and deploy AI systems that are not trustworthy,” Kim said. “To resolve this issue, the project aims to develop instructional materials that make students naturally exposed to learning privacy issues of AI systems with real-world examples.”
According to the Brookings Institution, the term “artificial intelligence” refers to machines that can take in data, analyze it and make specific decisions based on that analysis. This technology can be useful in a variety of fields, but there are also security concerns that should be taken into account.
“Machine learning algorithms require access to raw data, which is often privacy sensitive. For example, an educational AI technology may utilize students’ real-time log data, including their identification, assessment and evaluation results, personal backgrounds, photos and video recordings,” Kim explained. “On the other hand, machine learning systems are prone to various privacy attacks and susceptible to inadvertently revealing sensitive information.”
The grant project is supported by the Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC) program, which funds proposals that address cybersecurity and privacy. The SaTC program aligns with the Federal Cybersecurity Research and Development Strategic Plan and the National Privacy Research Strategy to protect and preserve the growing social and economic benefits of cyber systems while ensuring security and privacy.