Renowned British survivalist, adventurer and media figure Bear Grylls has teamed up with US artificial intelligence firm Seekr to promote digital literacy and critical thinking to younger generations.
From fighting hypothermia to fake news, Grylls is working with Seekr on ‘Mission Seekr’, a platform designed to “arm the next generation with critical media literacy tools and the confidence to safely navigate the online landscape through fun-filled, educational digital adventures”.
Seekr’s AI-based technology analyses online information in order to determine political bias and the reliability of information.
The company is the brainchild of Pat Condo, founder of former chief executive of semantic search and natural language processing company NTENT.
Asked by Bloomberg why he decided to join forces with Seekr, Grylls commented: “Because I think young people need to be empowered with modern-day survival skills that are going to be relevant for their life and empowering for their life.
“And in terms of survival, you're not going to get more of a Wild West Frontier than helping kids decipher and discern and be wise and be smart about information about where they're sourcing information from.”
“I think we've never had a time in history where it's so challenging for young people to be smart to be empowered to be digital survivors to be digitally literate, and to have an understanding of what is real and what is, you know, propaganda and misinformation,” said the television personality and writer.
The announcement follows a report suggesting that 2.4mln people in Britain are unable to complete a basic task to access the internet like using a mouse or opening an internet browser.
At that point the AI industry is predicted to be worth US$15.7trl globally, meaning companies could begin to favour AI for jobs rather than humans.