Comparison of Level and Relationship in Attitudes and Ethical Awareness toward Artificial Intelligence between Elementary General and Science-Gifted Students

This study compared the level and relationship in attitudes and ethical awareness toward Artificial Intelligence (AI) between elementary general and science-gifted students. For this purpose, 90 elementary general students in grades5-6 and 87 elementary science-gifted students in grades 5-6 were selected, and their attitudes toward AI and ethical awareness toward AI were tested. The results of the independent samples t-test showed that the means of the science-gifted students were statistically significantly higher than those of the general students in the overall and all sub-scales of attitudes toward AI. In addition, the means of the science-gifted students were statistically significantly higher than those of the general students in the overall and three sub-domains (‘stability and reliability’, ‘transparency and explanability’, and ‘robot rights’) of ethical awareness toward AI. However, the mean differences between the two groups were not statistically significant in two sub-domains (‘no discrimination’ and ‘employment’) of ethical awareness toward AI. The correlation analysis showed statistically significant correlations between attitudes and ethical awareness toward AI in both elementary general and science-gifted students. In particular, five sub-domains of attitudes toward AI were significantly correlated with the overall of ethical awareness toward AI and three or four in the five sub-domains of ethical awareness toward AI with high reliability. The correlation coefficients between ethical awareness and attitudes toward AI, especially the two sub-domains of ‘emotional interaction with AI’ and ‘social influence of AI’, were statistically significantly larger for the science-gifted students than for the general students. Educational implications of these findings are discussed.