Development of an AI literacy assessment for non-technical individuals: What do teachers know?

With the exponential development and vast interest in artificial intelligence (AI), the global economic impact of AI is expected to reach $15.7 trillion by 2030. While AI has infiltrated everyday life, a lack of knowledge of what AI is and how AI works is ubiquitous across all ages and professions. Teaching AI literacy to non-technical individuals has become imperative and requires immediate attention, however, assessing AI literacy has heavily relied on subjective measurements such as qualitative assessment and self-reported surveys, which may lead to biased results. This study contributes to the field by developing and validating an assessment created based on a well-established AI literacy framework. A total of 196 responses were collected from pre-and in-service teachers in the United States, and 186 responses were included in the analysis to validate the assessment. The final assessment comprises 25 objective-based items reduced from an originally 31-item assessment. Both experts’ insights were sought, and statistical methodology was employed to ensure the validity of the assessment. The results indicate that pre-and in-service teachers have a moderate level of AI literacy and in-service teachers performed slightly better than pre-service teachers on our assessment. Inconsistent answers across various AI concepts indicate that teachers may possess an even more ambiguous understanding of certain AI concepts.