How generative AI will affect Nesta's missions and work: Use cases [August 2023]

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1	How generative AI will affect Nesta's missions and work: Use cases
2	A live table of generative AI use cases (focussed primiarly on early-years)
3	This table a work-in-progress and purely informational. We are mindful of risks associated with generative AI and do not yet endorse any of these use cases.
4	More information about the project on Nesta website: https://www.nesta.org.uk/project/how-generative-ai-will-affect-nestas-missions-and-work/
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6	No	Use case (short)	Use case (details)	Users	Category	Area	Type of AI	Stage	Sources, examples, links	Comments

8	2	Create children's books	Generative AI enthusiasts have trialled tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney to craft children's books.	Creative professionals	Content	Early years	Generative	Product	Time.com article
9	3	Create personalised stories	Companies use generative AI to create story books with characters looking similar to your child.	Creative professionals, Caregivers	Content	Early years	Generative	Product	Storywizard
10	4	Generate voice narrations	With Typecast, you can create text-to-song audiobooks that educate children in song form. Using a computer-generated voice, you can change language and dialects and add minor effects that make the audio sound more interesting.	Creative professionals	Content	Early years	Generative	Product	Typecast
11	5	Create video content	While generative AI video is still in it's early days, creators are already trialling it's use for creating animated short films.	Creative professionals	Content	Early years	Generative	Prototype	Animation using generative AI (Corridor Crew) Process behind the scenes (Corridor Crew)
12	6	Create video games	Generative AI simplifies software development and creation of video games, which will likely lead to upsurge in innovative, interactive educational tools and entertainment	Creative professionals	Content	Early years	Generative	Prototype	The Generative AI Revolution in Games
13	7	Support administrative tasks in early-years settings	AI could streamline operations and administrative tasks in childcare delivery settings. Examples include expedite writing tasks, such as creating marketing copy and synthesizing document summaries.	Managers	Operations	Early years	Generative	Prototype	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu06TBag3ck&ab_channel=DaniChristine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2L-Wlkczg0&ab_channel=ChildcareBusinessVentureVault https://www.earlychildhoodeducationandcare.com/bloggers/2023/3/20/the-good-bad-and-ugly-of-an-artificial-intelligence-writing-childrens-progress-reports https://www.earlychildhoodeducationandcare.com/bloggers/2023/3/24/artificial-intelligence-will-have-monumental-impacts-on-early-childhood-education-and-care-in-the-near-future	Broad use case category. Other entries in this list also provide examples of narrower use cases.
14	8	Draft communication messages	ChatGPT could be used to generate personalized messages or announcements to parents or caregivers. These messages can include updates on events, reminders about important deadlines, or general information about the preschool's activities. More generally, companies (like the energy supplier Octopus Energy( are using AI to answer customer queries. This might be adopted by child care and preschool settings as well.	Managers	Operations	Early years	Generative	Prototype	Playground article https://sifted.eu/articles/octopus-energy-ceo-chatgpt-news
15	9	Transform notes into formal text	Large language models could assist educators in transforming handwritten or digital notes into professionally formatted communications and records. This ensures that messages to parents are clear, concise, and visually appealing. In addition, More generally, a new tool from Carbon Health aims to reduce a doctor’s workload by generating records and billing codes. Perhaps a similar tool would be helpful in the early-years setting (eg, to transcribe notes into formatted documents). Carbon Health Technologies Inc.’s product combines audio recordings of patient appointments and other information to generate a medical chart. The tool records and transcribes patient appointments using Amazon Transcribe Medical, a HIPAA-eligible service designed to accurately capture the names of medications, procedures and diseases. The transcript is then combined with other information, like lab results and notes from the doctor, to generate a summary of the patient’s visit. Health-care providers then can edit and finalize the record. Nearly 90% of transcripts are accepted by the provider without edits and the records are more detailed than manual ones, the company said. The tool takes less than four minutes to create a medical record, shaving more than 10 minutes off the time it can take a doctor to manually create a chart, according to the company.	Educators, Managers	Operations	Early years	Generative	Idea	Bloomberg article about the medical transcription service Turn notes into formatted communications
16	10	Generate children's stories	Caregivers are using large language model-based tools like ChatGPT to create unique and personalized bedtime stories for their children.	Caregivers	Content	Early years	Generative	Product	https://twitter.com/dweekly/status/1614843556803514369 Storytime app
17	11	Enhance family assistant chatbots	Developers are leveraging large language models like GPT-4 to enhance the chatbot experience for users of virtual family assistants like Milo.	Caregivers	Operations	Early years	Generative	Product	https://www.joinmilo.com/
18	12	Tutor children (Khanmigo)	Khan academy’s new AI educator doubles up as both a tutor and a teaching assistant. It’ll have the ability to figure out where a student might have gone wrong; talk them through better approaches; guide them; pretend to be a historical figure; and even be a strong debate opponent.	Older learners	Teaching	Early years	Generative	Product	Sal Khan presentation Ben's Bites article Artificial intelligence in early childhood education: A scoping review Assigning AI: Seven Approaches for Students, with Prompts
22	16	Support teacher training	Reserachers at Stanford University have explored whether generative AI could become a cost-effective complement to expert feedback by serving as an automated teacher coach. Their results reveal that ChatGPT generates responses that are relevant to improving instruction, but they are often not novel or insightful. For example, 82% of the model's suggestions point to places in the transcript where the teacher is already implementing that suggestion. Our work highlights the challenges of producing insightful, novel and truthful feedback for teachers while paving the way for future research to address these obstacles and improve the capacity of generative AI to coach teachers.	Educators	Teaching	Early years	Generative	Prototype	Is ChatGPT a Good Teacher Coach?
27	21	Draft lesson plans	AI-powered tools could help develop curriculum plans and classroom activities. These tools could analyze educational standards, learning objectives, and student data to generate personalized lesson plans that cater to individual needs and learning styles.	Educators	Teaching	Early years	Generative	Prototype	Winnie.com article
28	22	Generate personalised activities	Generative AI-based tools could take into account child's interests, strengths, and areas for improvement, to personalize activity ideas and lesson plans. As a result, educators can maximize engagement and buy-in by tailoring the curriculum to individual children. For example, if you are learning about 1:1 correspondence in a class of four-year-olds and need ideas for how to make it interesting for different groups of students in your class, you may prompt ChatGPT to: "Come up with a few different ways to teach 1:1 correspondence to a class of four-year-olds that are interested in trucks, cats, and princesses." Importantly, the activities should be grounded in best practice (eg, Development Matters guidance for England)	Educators	Teaching	Early years	Generative	Prototype	Butler Diaries article and cheat-sheet Winnie.com article Mumsnet discussion
29	23	Draft newsletters	ChatGPT can assist in generating content for newsletters or bulletins that are sent to parents, providing updates on preschool activities, curriculum highlights, upcoming events, or showcasing student achievements.	Educators	Operations	Early years	Generative	Prototype	Winnie.com article Playground article
30	24	Assist with writing	AI-powered tools can automatically proofread and correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation, enhancing written communication's overall quality and professionalism.	Educators	Operations	Early years	Generative	Prototype	https://winnie.com/resources/how-to-use-chatgpt-in-early-education
31	25	Design family schedule	"One of the most useful features of ChatGPT for me has been its ability to put together a customized daily schedule for my kids. To do this, I input information about my children's needs and activities. Then ChatGPT generates a schedule that keeps me on track. For example, I put in, "Kids have tutoring at 6 p.m. The kids return from school at 4:30 p.m. And snacks are taken before 6 p.m." The AI tool then makes a detailed schedule for me in less than 15 seconds, saving me a significant amount of time. And I appreciate that it also fills in the time gaps by including family-bonding activities in the schedule, such as watching a show together."	Caregivers	Family support	Early years	Generative	Prototype	ChatGPT got rid of my mom guilt
32	26	Meal planning for families	"As a busy mom, I find meal planning to often be a mental drain, especially when trying to cater to selective eaters. ChatGPT has helped turn this task into a time-saving one, and I can preserve my mental energy when meal planning. It generates delicious recipes that incorporate my children's dietary preferences and the ingredients I have available."	Caregivers	Family support	Early years	Generative	Prototype	ChatGPT got rid of my mom guilt
33	27	Suggesting age-appropriate chores	It was hard for me to come up with chores that were both age-appropriate and engaging for my kids. I knew that delegating household chores to my children was something I needed to do to develop their sense of responsibility, so I decided to see whether I could use ChatGPT to address this need. I input a bit of general information about my kids' interests and skills — like, "Princeton is 5 years old and likes to organize colors. Martin is 10 and he is creative. Adanna is 12 and likes to declutter." Then I tell the AI assistant, "Make a list of 10 child-friendly chores for each kid." Then it would shoot out a list of personalized chore suggestions that mirror each child's specific qualities. Because of this, I'm better able to delegate tasks to my kids, while giving them chores they're more likely to enjoy."	Caregivers	Family support	Early years	Generative	Prototype	ChatGPT got rid of my mom guilt
34	28	Draft policies and procedures	ChatGPT can be prompted with existing policies and procedures to generate standardized versions or summaries. This can be particularly helpful when creating handbooks or orientation materials for new parents or staff members.	Educators, Managers	Operations	Early years	Generative	Prototype	Playground article
35	29	Generate enrollment forms	ChatGPT can generate enrollment forms or application documents based on predefined templates. You can input the required information, and ChatGPT can populate the forms accordingly, streamlining the enrollment process. Then, you can upload your form into a child care management software platform, so that parents can easily access and fill out these forms through the parent portal.	Educators	Operations	Early years	Generative	Prototype	Playground article
36	30	Draft event agenda	ChatGPT can help generate detailed descriptions or explanations of various events or activities held at your preschool. This can include field trips, special celebrations, parent workshops, or educational programs. ChatGPT can assist in generating meeting agendas by providing a structure or template based on the desired format. All you need to do is input the key discussion points, and ChatGPT can organize them into a cohesive agenda.	Educators	Operations	Early years	Generative	Prototype	Playground article
37	31	Draft surveys	You can utilize ChatGPT to generate survey questions or prompts for collecting feedback from parents. ChatGPT can suggest relevant questions or help in formatting the survey, making it easier to gather valuable insights from the preschool community.	Educators	Operations	Early years	Generative	Prototype	Playground article
38	32	Draft handbooks or a resource guides	ChatGPT can assist in generating parent handbooks or resource guides that provide information about the preschool's policies, procedures, curriculum, and other relevant details. This can serve as a comprehensive reference for parents.	Educators	Operations	Early years	Generative	Prototype	Playground article
39	33	Interact with children in preschools	Education company Ednovation has developed a child-friendly AI chatbot. The company will roll out the chatbot, called EdGPT, and the use of generative AI tools, across its pre-schools in Singapore and other Asian countries.	Children	Teaching	Early years	Generative	Product	ChatGPT: What kids ask voice-activated AI https://www.straitstimes.com/life/children-ask-voice-activated-chatgpt-are-you-a-boy-or-a-girl https://ednovation.com/edgpt/ Paper discussing conversational agents for children
40	34	Create illustrations	How will Singapore look like in the future? Children from the ChildFirst @ King Albert Park pre-school tap their creativity – and new artificial intelligence tools – to turn their vision of the future into works of art.	Children	Teaching	Early years	Generative	Product	ChatGPT: What kids ask voice-activated AI https://www.straitstimes.com/multimedia/graphics/2023/03/children-preschool-future-ai-singapore/index.html
41	35	Augment teacher knowledge	The participants suggest that as knowledge, information retrieval, and integration skills become less critical, human agency and inquiry ability become more important. As a result, they predict that ChatGPT's future trajectory should be as a resource for Intelligence Augmentation (IA) rather than as a replacement for the actions of educators and caregivers.	Educators	Teaching	Early years	Generative	Idea	Paper: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10409289.2023.2214181
42	36	Support foreign language learning	Preschool years are considered the best time for children to learn a second language. An increasing number of parents would like their children to start learning a foreign language at an early age. However, engaging little children with learning activities is challenging. In this study, we propose a framework for developing a foreign language learning software tool utilizing Augmented Reality (AR), Voicebots, and ChatGPT (an AI tool utilizing the Large Language Models) technologies to provide a unique product for young children to teach a foreign language. With AR and Voicebots, the product can grab attention, motivate, and provide an entertaining learning environment. The capabilities of ChatGPT can be utilized to efficiently prepare the content for the software tool. We show how to utilize the capabilities of ChatGPT to generate interactive dialogs that can be hosted at Google DialogFlow.	Children	Teaching	Early years	Generative	Prototype	Paper: https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/2864638
43	37	Interact with children (AI friend)	An extremeley speculative use case: Company Fat Rabbit is providing the next level of entertainment for kids, with AI generated content. They're building a virtual therapist app using conversation AI. Our business model is in app subscriptions. Using AI to give kids a new best friend, and help solve the $4 trillion global loneliness epidemic.	Children	Family support	Early years	Generative	Idea	https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/fat-rabbit https://www.eu-startups.com/directory/fat-rabbit/
44	38	Generate learning content	Nolej.io automatically converts documents (Text, Video, Audio) into dynamic active learning content through the use of our AI. What used to take instructional designers hours, can now be done by anyone in minutes.	Educators, Developers	Content	Early years	Generative	Product	https://nolej.io/
45	39	Create personalised colouring pages	Generative AI tools like Midjourney or DALL-E can create personalised colouring pages based on a child's interests, supporting fine motor skills and creativity.	Children	Teaching	Early years	Generative	Product	Using Midjourney to create colouring books
46	40	Create flashcards	Generative AI tools like Midjourney or DALL-E can generate flashcards with images and corresponding text to facilitate early learning and vocabulary expansion.	Educators	Teaching	Early years	Generative	Idea	ChatGPT generated idea
52	46	Support learning to write	CoWriter is a generative AI system that can produce realistic handwritten text based on user input. It can be used to help young children learn how to write letters, words, and sentences by mimicking the handwriting of a human teacher or a peer. CoWriter can also adapt its difficulty level and feedback according to the child’s progress and preferences.	Children	Teaching	Early years	Generative	Product	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iLScP0PjzU&ab_channel=ICRA2020-SocialRoboticsforNDD https://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/262887
53	47	Generate many varied examples	Multiple examples: Students need many examples when learning complicated concepts. When confronted with new and complex ideas, adding many and varied examples helps students better understand them. If students are presented with only one example, they may focus on the superficial details of that example and not get at the deeper concept. Multiple examples of a single concept can help students decontextualize the idea from the example, leading to better recall and understanding. Multiple explanations: Teaching involves logical and coherent explanations (Ericsson & Lehmann, 1996). Effective explanations lay the groundwork for foundational knowledge that helps students build mental maps of topics (Willingham, 2023). To develop effective explanations instructors must: understand where students are and what they already know (prior knowledge), sequence and structure their explanations to move from the simple to the complex (a step-by-step approach), provide organizational cues that help students follow along (we are here, next we'll move on to..) and add concrete details to each explanation (examples or analogies) that help students grasp and contextualize a new concept in light of what they already know. The goal for any explanation: students should eventually be able to explain a concept to others in their own words (Willingham, 2023).	Educators	Teaching	Early years	Generative	Prototype	https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4391243
56	50	Supporting midwife and health visiting services	Generative AI might help summarise report notes and help each group of stakeholders (ie, midwives and health visitors) get the info they need, perhaps translate information between different assessment forms	Midwives, Health visitors	Health	Early years	Generative	Idea
57	51	Supporting speech and language therapy	Large language models could enhance chatbots and apps that can answer parents' questions about the therapy, or by directly supporting it	Caregivers, Children	Family support	Early years	Generative	Idea
59	53	Make activity recommendations	Generative AI could read a child's assessment form and make recommendations for activities and interventions to support child development	Educators, Caregivers	Teaching	Early years	Generative	Idea
60	54	Simplify complex concepts	Large language models can generate age-appropriate explanations of any complex concenpt	Educators, Caregivers	Teaching	Early years	Generative	Prototype
61	55	Improve conversations	Speech recognition algorithms could understand conversations between caregivers/educators and children, and provide feedback and ideas for conversation prompts	Caregivers, Educators	Teaching, Family support	Early years	Generative	Idea
62	56	Draft reports	Supporting early years workers with drafting assessment forms and other reports	Educators	Teaching	Early years	Generative	Idea	https://www.edweek.org/technology/with-chatgpt-teachers-can-plan-lessons-write-emails-and-more-whats-the-catch/2023/01
64	58	Schedule weekly programmes	Large language models can help with scheduling a whole week's worth of activities for early-years practitioners	Educators	Teaching	Early years	Generative	Prototype	Link to examples