“It also makes me worried about my own child and how easily her image could be used to bully or cause her harm.”
AI videos have been shared on social media
Parents at a Scots school have spoken of their outrage after AI-generated clips of teachers engaging in romantic relations were shared on social media.
One fake video shown to Edinburgh Live depicts James Gillespie High staff being romantically involved and being embroiled in an entirely fabricated love triangle.
The clip has been edited to portray the pair going through a fictitious “break up”. The footage is captioned with their names while a mournful song plays in the background.
A mention of a third colleague as a love rival is also included in the 20-second clip. Other faked AI videos have been shared on the account which has since been deleted.
A mum branded the clip “horrifying and distressing” while union bosses branded the proliferation of AI as “concerning”. While the page brands itself as “banter”, parents have raised concerns about students using AI for potentially malicious purposes and the impacts this may have on teachers.
‘For the teachers it must be horrifying’
A 42-year-old mum, who has a child at James Gillespie’s High School and wished to remain anonymous, said: “The kids may see this as a bit of a harmless joke, but for the teachers it must be horrifying.
“The fact technology allows pupils to easily mock up videos and say whatever they like about staff is really distressing. These are adults responsible for the well-bring of pupils in their care and it’s alarming to say the least.
“It also makes me worried about my own child and how easily her image could be used to bully or cause her harm.
“You have to consider the mental health and physical safety of young people when they are meant to be in a safe place at school. This really exposes the dark side of AI and I hope the platform acts with urgency to remove these videos”.
Over recent days, reports have emerged of other school pupils across Scotland creating fake social media accounts, using teachers’ names and generating AI videos of them. It’s understood the actions caused “great distress” among staff as content is often “humiliating, offensive and violent” and sometimes “sexual” in nature. Some have even been absent from work because of the “trauma” experienced as a result.
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Edinburgh secretary for Edinburgh Institute of Scotland, Alison Murphy, said she is ‘concerned’ about the increase of AI due to it being so open to abuse.
She added: “Like most people, while we can see huge potential for AI, at the moment we have concerns and fears because it is so open to abuse. That means everything from deep fakes, which can be career-ending, to concerns about course work and homework.
“We are desperately in need of support, guidance, and for the big tech companies to be more responsible in managing these programmes. It is a real worry for a huge number of people in education.
“We are also incredibly worried about the impact on pupils. There is a lot of coverage on how AI can generate sexualised images. Very rapidly, large language models can produce racist and misogynistic content. Fake news is a huge worry. When you are exposing young people to that, the worries are even more acute.”
Edinburgh Council spokesperson said: “We have user guidelines and conditions in place around the use of devices and technology, including the use of AI, by learners in our schools. This content was created on young people’s own personal devices outside of school time, and has now been deleted.”
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