Shouting Into the Void - A Critical Discussion on AI Today

AI, or artificial intelligence, is the creation of intelligent machines that can perform tasks requiring human intelligence. It is developing in fields like healthcare, finance, and transportation. Questions arise about making AI better, ensuring its benefit to humanity, protecting privacy, and whether it will surpass human intelligence. An artist, Sydney, fears AI because it can create art for free, threatening their income. As a student, Katya sees the risks of using AI for academic help, like plagiarism. Teachers need to be informed about AI and can use tools like chat GPT to support learning, but not rely on it completely. The discussion highlights the need for responsible use of AI and finding a balance between its advantages and drawbacks in different contexts. The question remains if AI will dominate or coexist with humanity. AI It is a field of computer science that focuses on creating intelligent machines which can be able to perform tasks that would typically require human intelligence. These tasks include things like speech recognition, problem solving, learning, and decision making. AI is really developing in fields such as healthcare, finance, and transportation. Now here are some questions that arise with the emergence of AI. At first, is it really worth trying to make AI more and more better? How can we ensure that AI is used for the benefit of humanity and does not harm individuals or communities? Moreover, how can we protect personal privacy and data security in an increasingly AI-driven world? Lastly, will AI take over human intelligence in future? So, let's begin considering both negative and positive aspects of AI and let's share our views on whether AI is a demon which is taking over for humans in different fields or is it just a tool which is helping humans in those various fields. Artists Sydney, as an artist, what is your opinion on AI? I don't like AI. I know you'll see on the news all the wonderful things AI has done or is capable of doing and don't get me wrong, AI is definitely a powerful tool. I will admit that. However, as a digital artist, I genuinely fear it. For those who don't know, artists often rely on commissions from other people in order to make an income. You'll probably see people on social media platforms showcasing their art hoping that, you know, you'll click on their account and consider commissioning them. Also, commissions themselves aren't exactly cheap either. Like, you're not going to get a big fully drawn and colored piece for $10 or $15. You can expect starting prices to be around $30 and above for smaller prints that aren't colored, which makes sense because, you know, you're paying for their hard work, their tools, and most importantly, their time. However, with AI on the rise, it completely changes the game for us artists. With AI, all you need to do is write a small description of the kind of picture you want and boom! That exact image is brought into existence and literally anyone can do this. So what exactly does this mean for artists? Well, okay, think about it this way. Why pay someone to make an art piece for you when you can get AI to do it for you for free and in no time at all? If you want, like, a specific art style or, you know, a specific art medium, AI can do it too. This is why AI is so scary for so many artists. People don't need us anymore because AI can create the art for them, no cost required. If people have the option to not spend money, you best believe most will immediately take it. So yeah, I don't like AI. It's making a lot of us concerned for our futures. So please, please, please, if you can, support your artists online and offline because we rely on you. So Katya, what are your views on AI as a student? Well, as a student, all I hear from institutions is how AI is bad. ChatGPT is bad. It's plagiarism and you shouldn't use it. Obviously, they tell us horrible stories about students using AI to write their essays for them and later on being uncovered, accused of academic misconduct and thrown out of school. They write about academic misconduct and there's a lot of students who participate in it intentionally or unintentionally. It's something that people should know more about. Of course, I know there's also good sides to AI in learning context. It can help with many things, such as finding out new learning strategies or even giving you feedback you might not have access to from someone else. However, using AI for help in studying is always risky. You never know where the information is coming from. As a person who always struggles with using the right words or phrases and especially hard for me are essay assignments, going to AI and asking it to do the job for me is always a big temptation. I know that I won't be able to phrase what I think the way AI can do it for me. Why even try if you know you can just go and ask and get the answer in seconds? It is so much easier and faster. But unfortunately, I know this way me and many other students might never learn how to operate words better. AI can be great help for some, but I think not having access to it at all would benefit students more than they think. Teachers What is your perspective on AI as a teacher? So I remember last spring overhearing a couple of my grade 8 English students talking. The conversation went something like this. So you got this chat GPT thing figured out? And then the reply, I think so. Now I had been hearing a lot about chat GPT myself and artificial intelligence, but I had definitely not figured it out. That conversation made me realize that if I was going to be any kind of a teacher, I was going to need to be at least as informed as my students about the tools that could be used. So what can teachers do to make sure that AI is used for the power of good? Well, the word coming down from my school division, from my bosses, on the topic of AI in general and chat GPT in particular, is that these are valuable tools that teachers and students should learn how to use. Chat GPT can help us organize our thoughts and choose better words to express our ideas, which can support us as writers to create better essays or other assignments and could even be used to create better lesson plans. So I'm on board with that. We cannot be tolerant of plagiarism, and we all need to learn how to write. And so it's important that we teach our students how to use the tools to support our learning, such as chat GPT, but not to simply complete our assignments. And we can do this by offering assignments with authentic writing prompts that are more personal and more locally relevant, so as they cannot be produced by artificial intelligence. Final thoughts. So, Jay, what are your views on all these explanations about AI? In conclusion, Parambri Dev's definition defines AI as the creation of intelligent machines, which embodies both positive and negative implications of AI across the different fields. Sydney's concern representing artists express worries about AI impact on the art world, point out the ability to generate art quickly and at no cost poses a threat to traditional artists who rely on commission. Katya's perspective as a student discussed the academic context of AI, notes that AI can assist in learning and academic tasks, but raises concern about plagiarism and student potential, relying too much on AI for assignment. Nisha's viewpoint as a teacher emphasized the role of AI in education, stressed the need of teachers to adopt AI tools like chat GPT to enhance students' writing skills and insights, identifies the challenge of finding a balance between utilizing AI for learning enhancement and preventing plagiarism. In conclusion, AI is a powerful tool with potential to reform various fields, but it impacts various depending on the context. Their discussion emphasized the importance of responsible use of AI, ethical consideration and the need to strike a balance between AI's advantage and potential drawback. The broader question remains, is the AI department taking over or is it a tool that can coexist with humanity, enhancing our abilities and creativity while respecting the core values of different professionals and fields? The answer may depend on how we navigate the challenges and opportunities that AI presents. Thank you for tuning in.