The University of Sheffield launches UK's first community-designed AI awareness campaign
A first-of-its-kind campaign to raise AI awareness among the general public has been launched
The University of Sheffield has launched 'Let's Talk AI', a first-of-its-kind campaign to raise AI awareness among the general public.
The pilot features three stories, covering AI in the media, AI in everyday life, and AI in schools, each addressing the real fears and questions people have about AI.
They appear as webtoons (digital comics designed to scroll vertically) on social media and as posters on bus stops across Sheffield, Plymouth, Morecambe and Lancaster, supported by a resource hub at letstalkai.org.uk.
The campaign is championed by Margaret Colling, a retired librarian and grandmother of three from Morecambe, who is now one of the campaign's leading advocates and whose idea it was to display the creatives at bus stops.
Margaret was volunteering in her local tea shop when she came across an opportunity to join a people's panel on AI.
What she learnt opened her eyes - from AI being used to make decisions about people's benefits and healthcare, to scam emails becoming harder to spot, to how her grandchildren use AI for schoolwork. But it also made her realise she'd been given access to information most people never get. That’s what led her to work with the ‘Let’s Talk AI’ team.
The campaign was built entirely on what real people said they wanted to know about AI. Led by Dr Susan Oman, Senior Lecturer in Data, AI and Society at The University of Sheffield, the project spent six months running research and community workshops, asking residents about their fears, questions and experiences of AI. The characters and storylines in the webtoons were drawn directly from those conversations, illustrated by artist Kitty McEwan.
Let’s Talk AI builds on Public Voices in AI, a £1 million UKRI-funded research project which found people overwhelmingly want to understand AI better but feel excluded from the conversation. It is supported by an expert advisory group including the Government Office for Science, the Ada Lovelace Institute and Connected by Data, complementing the campaign's real experts: the members of the public who shaped it.
Margaret said: "I wanted this campaign at bus stops because that's where we can reach people - waiting for the bus, going about their lives. Not at conferences or on webinars. As a librarian I’ve always believed information should be for everyone, and right now when it comes to AI, it isn’t. This pilot is in three locations, and I’d love to see it on bus stops up and down the country. It needs to be national policy.”
Dr Oman said: "Government AI skills initiatives focus on upskilling the workforce and schools, but there’s nothing to encourage healthy discussions and informed usage for the rest of us. The grandparent navigating scam emails, the parent trying to keep up with what their children are doing online, or for anyone encountering AI for the first time. ‘Let’s Talk AI’ is designed to fill that gap. When we asked communities what they wanted, they told us they needed a better understanding of how AI works in their lives and the lives of people around them. They didn’t want webinars or reports, they wanted characters and stories they could identify with. This pilot shows what a national AI awareness campaign for the public could look like. Now we need the Government to back it.”
To find out more, visit Letstalkai.org.uk