Cogniti is part of a new breed of software that uses generative artificial intelligence (AI). We are committed to the safe and ethical use of generative AI and have voluntarily adopted Australia’s AI Ethics Principles. The principles are presented below in bold, and our responses follow.
Human, societal and environmental wellbeing: AI systems should benefit individuals, society and the environment. Cogniti is designed to benefit students and teachers, making generative AI easier, more accessible, and more relevant.
Human-centred values: AI systems should respect human rights, diversity, and the autonomy of individuals. Cogniti puts teachers and students at the centre of generative AI, allowing teachers to design generative AI tools that fit their very human contexts.
Fairness: AI systems should be inclusive and accessible, and should not involve or result in unfair discrimination against individuals, communities or groups. Cogniti allows teachers and institutions to deploy generative AI to all students equitably, so that these tools are available for all.
Privacy protection and security: AI systems should respect and uphold privacy rights and data protection, and ensure the security of data. Cogniti data is hosted on secure servers, and the Privacy Policy upholds users’ rights to privacy within the contexts of this tool.
Reliability and safety: AI systems should reliably operate in accordance with their intended purpose. Where available, Cogniti uses content filtering and abuse monitoring functionality provisioned by large language model providers such as Azure. Users are able to report specific messages of concern that arise from generative AI within the system.
Transparency and explainability: There should be transparency and responsible disclosure so people can understand when they are being significantly impacted by AI, and can find out when an AI system is engaging with them. It is clear that users are interacting with a generative AI when using Cogniti. Having control over the system prompt and other prompts gives transparency to teachers on how generative AI is used.
Contestability: When an AI system significantly impacts a person, community, group or environment, there should be a timely process to allow people to challenge the use or outcomes of the AI system. Teachers steer Cogniti AI agents towards educationally meaningful purposes and determine how this AI system impacts on students. Users are able to report specific messages of concern that arise from generative AI within the system.
Accountability: People responsible for the different phases of the AI system lifecycle should be identifiable and accountable for the outcomes of the AI systems, and human oversight of AI systems should be enabled. Cogniti agents are steered by teachers, meaning that they are in control of how this generative AI is used to help students.