10 minute read
Artificial Intelligence in Higher Ed
THE NEVER-ENDING POSSIBILITIES OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
ar·ti·fi·cial in·tel·li·gence (AI)
The theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decisionmaking and translation between languages.
By Molly McKim ’23
Though seemingly easy to define, AI is certainly difficult to explain and fully understand. It may be helpful to think of generative AI (Gen AI) as the logical progression of the virtual assistant technology like Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa. The digital voice assistant programs both rely on natural language generation and processing and machine learning, forms of AI, in order to operate and perform better over time. Unlike Siri or Alexa’s auto formatted response, Gen AI searches all available online information to craft customized responses.
In addition to being able to play any song of your choosing, add things to your online shopping cart, or set up a reminder through just the sound of your voice, Gen AI is being used in a wide variety of industries today.
Though a still relatively new field, Gen AI is being used in healthcare to diagnose diseases and provide personalized care, in finance to detect fraud and manage risk, in retail to personalize recommendations and optimize inventory, in transportation to develop self-driving cars and optimize traffic flow, and more. Thousands of conversations are being had about how AI could affect all sorts of careers: art, engineering, business, communications, and even computer science.
When Stanford professor John McCarthy coined the term “artificial intelligence” in 1955, no one could have predicted that in less than a century, AI would become such a big part of our lives. Unbeknownst to Professor McCarthy, teachers and professors are now faced with a big challenge as AI continues to rise in popularity and accessibility.
GEN AI IN EDUCATION
Gen AI’s quick adaptations and applications mean that its potential impact, both good and bad, is growing exponentially. Already we can see how generative AI systems can (and will) have expansive implications for how schools function, how teachers work and how students develop personally and professionally for tomorrow’s work world.
Regardless of its increasing popularity, Gen AI has been used in education spaces for more than a decade. AI-powered systems, like Carnegie Learning or Turnitin (used right here at Messiah!) can analyze student responses and assignments and provide feedback on their needs.
Perhaps the most popular AI tool used in education spaces today is ChatGPT, created by the company OpenAI. ChatGPT pioneered the way for many other companies to replicate its versatile and user-friendly AI writing tool.
David Owen, professor of computer science at Messiah, has mixed feelings about the software. “I think ChatGPT is an amazing thing,” he said. “It’s really hard to believe it works so well, and the brilliant and creative people who have made it possible (going all the way back through the history of computer hardware and software development) should be honored and appreciated.”
“At the same time, something like ChatGPT should be understood in the context of the wide range of technologies developed over the last 150 years or so that have made it possible to automate tasks that could previously have been done only by humans, if at all.”
Joanna Behm, an assistant professor in the Master of Occupational Therapy Program, believes that Gen AI is a tool that is not a solution to all of our problems. “Just like any tool, students need to learn how to use it ethically and responsibly,” she said. “I believe it’s the educators’ job to bring up the “elephant in the room” and to discuss AI with students, including how to use it, the parameters regarding when they can/cannot use it, and demonstrate the benefits and challenges.”
Other Gen AI tools, Midjourney and DALL-E are actively affecting art students. Midjourney and DALL-E are Gen AI tools that create images based on user text prompts. In order to complete its task, the AI program is fed thousands of images from human artists and pieces them together to create a new piece based on the prompt. Both programs are easily accessible to students, companies, and organizations alike.
Despite this, Hong Huo, assistant professor of graphic design and digital media, finds Gen AI to be an entryway to new ideas and spark creativity, but also draws a line at the copyright and ethicality of Gen AI art.
“As an intelligent machine/tool, AI technology opens new opportunities for artists to be creative in a very unique way to create things humans are not capable of making, especially in a short amount of time,” she said. “AI is a living collage machine, where ‘new’ products are generated and collaged together based on a large body of data being fed into the machine. It challenges the way we perceive digital art and other visual art mediums due to its high capability of imitating any image style.”
“There are still too many gray areas in the copyright and ethics for AI-generated images/ art. According to the U.S. Copyright Office, AI-generated works are not protected by copyright, as only human-made creations are eligible for copyright.”
Where can an ethical line be drawn when using AI programs in academia, for professors, and for students? It’s up to our educators to make that decision.
AI AND CHRISTIAN ACADEMIA
As awareness and its use in education grows, many Christians are wondering about AI’s purpose in personal and professional life. It is natural to have concerns about rapid advancements in AI, especially due to the ethical implications of the creation of human-like and intelligent machines and the potential loss of jobs as the technology advances.
Some Christian educators see AI’s personalized capabilities as a “reflection of God’s design” and a “tool that acknowledges the uniqueness of each student’s talents and gifts.” Others find AI can cause harm through spiritual confusion and isolation.
“As a Christ-follower, I think AI has brought some good challenges but also sparked some new ideas about how we view the technology we have access to with the light of faith,” said Huo. “Deep down, I believe we as God’s image bearers want to imitate Him, especially in how He creates. In Genesis, we see how God created the universe and us by simply ‘says and done,’ this miraculous mystery of creating is intriguing and impossible for us to imitate ... so we have more and more smart tools to help us create great things in a shorter amount of time, like our computers, smartphones, now AI technology. We are fascinated by this action of ‘says and done,’ and it is true that we can create things in a very short time with the help of technology, but we cannot fully control it, not yet. That is the biggest difference between God and His creation He is always in full control, no matter how we struggle to understand it.”
The software utilizes natural language processing to create written content based on the user’s prompt. The tool is enjoyed by students and writers to overcome writer’s block and generate creative ideas. However, some students are unethically using the program to complete entire assignments. Some are asking whether Gen AI programs like ChatGPT can be used in the completion of homework assignments, writing summaries, or proofing essays in ways that aren’t plagiarism.
“The cheating concern is probably at the top of educators’ list,” said Behm. “One important thing to note is that right now, AI detectors do not work and can lead to false accusations. Some ways to mitigate these concerns could be to ask students to cite whatever AI tool they are using just like they would any other resource, turn in the chat history, turn in the actual references cited and have those reference materials annotated, or turn in the AI draft and then their updated personal draft which explains what changes they made and why they made them.”
In addition to concerns about cheating and completing assignments, Owen believes our primary concern about ChatGPT should be about finding purpose in doing work. “For the people whose work involves studying, doing research, learning or synthesizing information, to produce a written summary of their understanding ... is that [still] meaningful work? If so, it’s unfortunate that it can now be automated.”
He also shares a concern for his future computer programming students. “In the future, much of the programming now done by humans will likely be done automatically by Gen AI tools. So, the ability to write computer programs will be less important, while the ability to analyze a program you didn’t write, will be much more important. Unfortunately ... it’s harder and less fun to analyze a program you didn’t write.”
IS AI HERE TO STAY?
Despite citing both benefits and challenges to AI in education, Behm finds that AI is here to stay in the classroom. “Although there are many challenges to using AI, I do think the benefits far outweigh them. I personally believe that using AI has made me a better educator and has improved my pedagogy.”
Huo feels similarly about AI and art. What’s most important is that “artists should see it as an opportunity to collaborate with the machine, and use it in a way that it celebrates diversity in creative expression with respect to dignity to other beings, and keep reflecting about the truth behind our art-making processes,” she said.
It is unpredictable how advanced the technology will get in the future. For now, teachers across the globe have been thrown into another experiment. They need support from all angles to figure it out, but that doesn’t mean it’s the end of academia; it’s a new beginning.
EXAMPLES OF AI AND ART FROM PROFESSOR HUO:
Some good examples are Refik Anadol’s Unsupervised (installation at MoMA), where the artist worked with a team of engineers and computer scientists to “teach” the machine to “animate” almost random in-between morphing transitions based on the MoMA’s art collection data; and Xu Bing’s Artificial Intelligence Infinite Film Project, which also involves a large team of people working collaboratively to create this interactive installation, where the spectator becomes the producer and, with AI, they can freely generate whatever film genre, plots, narrative, etc. they want to see.
Lastly, I want to give you what I included in my syllabus, written by my chair David Kasparek to all our students:
CONSIDERATIONS/REMINDERS FOR AI AND ART
AI can generate but not create.
AI does not compose. It recomposes.
AI can replace/mimic mediocre work, but not truly excellent work.
AI cannot provide true creative leadership
AI is VERY artificial, but only narrowly intelligent.
AI is not clever.
AI is not strategic.
AI is amoral.
AI does not have empathy.
AI does not have free will.
AI does not have fine dexterity (especially hand-eye coordination).
AI is more effective in the domain of Data and Information, but not so much in the realm of Knowledge and Wisdom
AI should be used as a tool and not as an end.
AI can change or make untrue all of the above statements as it evolves, unfolds or develops.
