How is Generative AI different from regular Artificial Intelligence? What do people see as the benefits?
Watch:
The Difference Between Generative AI and Traditional AI: An Easy Explanation for Anyone (2 minute video)
Read:
Technology Has Shaped Human Knowledge for Centuries. Generative AI is Set To Transform it Yet Again (8-10 minute read)
Discuss:
Why do you think GenAI tools like ChatGPT has made such a big splash in our society? If you like, share your experience with GenAI and what you hope to learn in this program. Post your brief reflection (3-5 sentences) in the Comments below. (You must first register with this website which will prompt you to log in through CAS. Doing so will make you an “active” user. You will then be asked to log in again to leave a comment.)
30 replies on “thing 1: What is Generative AI?”
This is a great start! I am fascinated by AI, yet wonder the long-term effects on the generation(s) that grow up with AI – both with thinking/creativity and physically (brain atrophy, maybe?). I did not have computer classes introduced in school until I was in 5th grade in 1976 (yes, I am that old) and I am blown away at how far technology has come, and how much I don’t know or understand. According to Socrates, I am wise, however, since I know what I don’t know. Thank you for the video and article!!
I can relate to this comment; I am new to AI and really never had much experience with computers until I joined a workforce in which everything was done by computer. At the age of 60 yrs. I am still learning. I still tend to fall back on pen and paper just because I trust it more. I think AI and computers are a good companion to traditional learning but as an employee of a college I see kids who are learning solely in a digital era but depend on that alone instead of a mix of that and good old common sense and logic to figure out everyday solutions to everyday problems.
GenAI tools are providing shortcuts to information and an easy, affordable assistant to deliver information that would otherwise take hours to research. The answers often need to be double-checked and fine-tuned, but they offer a great starting point. I hope to learn how to use the tools available as resources to be more efficient.
I think it has made a big splash because it makes it easier for people to write and/or create in less time and with less effort. As the article mentioned, it does concern me that use of GenAI will lessen peoples’ ability to think on their own (just like using GPS has lessened peoples’ ability to use maps and truly understand where they are and where they’re going).
I have primarily used GenAI to sharpen my writing — by writing something and then requesting an evaluation of what I’ve written and suggested improvements. I then decide whether or not I want to use the suggestions.
One of the coolest ways I used GenAI was to create a packing list for a 2-week trip to Europe. I provided information such as the dates of travel, locations we planned to visit, the fact that I planned to take only a carry-on and a backpack, etc., and it created a great packing list for me which even took weather into account!
The ability of generative AI tools to run on everyday digital devices makes it easily accessible and convenient for use. I, personally, have little experience with generative AI and to this point feel ambivalent towards it. I share concerns that it may undermine critical thinking skills and steer people to become less discerning. I hope through participation in these activities; I’ll reconsider the benefits of generative AI and feel more optimistic about it.
GenAI tools like ChatGPT have made a big splash, as they make everyday tasks like writing, problem-solving, and communication faster and more accessible to everyone. Personally, I’ve used GenAI to refine emails, explain technical concepts, and compare documents. Through this program, I hope to gain a better understanding of how to use GenAI more strategically and responsibly in professional settings.
Streamline work processes and increase productivity. I’m hoping to use AI to help check over my written work, and use prompts to help create documents, sort data, etc.
So far, I have not learnt much new. Hopefully, this will change as we proceed. My experience in trying to make AI generate Mathematical proofs showed that it acts like a not so good student, hiding the gaps and hoping they won’t be noticed. We’ll see how it goes…
Thanks for the pizza and the motivation to learn and increase my comfort with GenAI.
GenAI provides the enticing combination of all the knowledge of the internet, the creativity of multiple minds, and the quickness of an immediate response. I find it a very powerful and helpful tool, but I always like to combine the GenAI product with my own ideas/text to come up with a mix of both my own personal ideas and those of GenAI.
GenAI tools are generating so much buzz because they allow users to quickly create deliverables that are outside of their current skillset. You may be an excellent wordsmith, but can you draft a video script complete with timestamps? Can you easily generate a conference agenda based on session submissions? Can you create a logo for your latest project? With GenAI, you can.
I think GenAI has had such a large impact in society because of its capabilities compared to previous technologies. We frequently see smaller steps forward in technology with occasional larger leaps, such as the printing press as mentioned in the article. I believe the ease of accessibility (anyone with a device and internet connection can access and use GenAI) is another factor contributing to the large societal response. The differing views on GenAI cause more conversations about it, adding to the size of the “splash.”
ChatGPT helps me in my daily life with emails and researching topics I would like to know more about.
I hope to learn more than ChatGPT to help me with daily work.
GenAI creates efficiencies — we can do a lot of things faster and with less effort with these tools. And we live in a culture and a time when fast, efficient, and effortless is valued. We are less committed to slow thinking and to the deliberative process. For a long time now — decades, probably, at least since the invention of the smart phone — we’ve heard that our attention spans are shrinking. At the same time, demands on our attention are increasing. I think AI is making such a big splash in society because we feel like we might get some of our time and attention back. I just hope we choose to use it for things that are slow and attentive.
I do not have much experience with GenAI, except that my initial thoughts are negative. My experience is based on discussions with other faculty about how GenAI is promoting cheating among our students. I am participating in this 16-in-93 program to learn about GenAI’s usefulness. This first module has already started to help me with this. The one thing that is concerning is the fact that GenAI programs can “hallucinate” and provide false information. My question is: how can we use AI-generated information if every bit of information needs to be checked?
I think generative AI tools have made a splash in our society because many people realize the impact it can have in their daily lives, whether the impact is good or bad. Some people think AI tools should be regulated and have the generated things labeled or tracked while others, who are usually the people profiting from them, think it should be a free for all. One example I have seen of people using AI is using them to create books. By generating story text and images someone could create one, or fifty, children’s books in no time. That same person could also use it to create a wildlife survival guide on a topic that they have no expertise in and hope their generated information is correct.
I’m fascinated by AI and its potential, but I also wonder about its long-term effects on future generations, particularly how it might impact thinking, creativity, and even brain development. I’ve used ChatGPT to rephrase emails, break down complex concepts, and help with travel planning. Hopefully this program will help me use AI more strategically and responsibly, especially given concerns that it might diminish independent thinking.
I think it has made a big splash because it has allowed people to work smarter and not harder. I am old school and I think that it has made our younger generations a little lazy and giving them the ability to miss some key skills in communications. I hope this training will give me a better insight on all that AI has to offer and to change my thinking on the whole idea.
I think GenAI tools have made such a splash in society in part because they promise to democratize skills and knowledge, in ways that make the printing press and the Internet look quaint. GenAI can be a hard-working research assistant who uncovers information much faster than you ever could. GenAI can be your endlessly patient after-school teacher, explaining concepts that you found hard to grasp in class. GenAI can be a personalized, supportive companion who provides a safe space to talk through your ideas, plans, and worries.
But behind every opportunity that GenAI presents, there is a risk. The research assistant hallucinates and makes up facts, figures, and sources. The after-school teacher ends up doing your work for you–meaning you never really learn. The personalized companion is more loving and understanding than the real people in your life.
I’m familiar with and have been using GenAI tools for a long time. In 2020, I sent an email to my family with the subject line, “Would you like to see the future?”, sharing a blog post about GPT-3, a ground-breaking deep learning model from OpenAI. Two years later, ChatGPT would be released.
Though I appreciate how useful GenAI can be, I’m deeply concerned about the far-reaching implications of its widespread adoption, especially given recent research from MIT (brain imaging studies) linking the use of GenAI to the erosion of critical thinking skills and cognitive decline. For this reason and other ethical concerns, I’ve pulled back on my personal use of GenAI.
Yet these tools are here to stay, and they promise so much. I’m looking forward to understanding more about the current state of GenAI and what we should know going forward about how to use these tools, if we choose to do so. Thank you W&M Libraries and IT for putting together this course and these resources!
This very much reflects both my experience with AI tools and my concerns about it. Given the power of these new tools and their ease of use (at least for simple purposes), it seems inevitable to me that students will use them. I think it is vital for us as educators and scholars to develop our own critical understandings of the pros and cons of these tools and then develop (and redevelop) assignments and practices for and with our students that use the tools to their fullest potential while also helping our students build the fundamental skills they need to do work without AI tools, to review the work they do with AI tools, and to think critically about both when and when not to use AI tools. We’re going to have to learn a lot, fast, and be inventive!
Thanks for bringing us together. This absolutely crucial work!
Our society has grown accustom to convenience and quick service. Packages arrive “same-day”, Insta-Pot meals are ready in minutes, and what’s more, these things can be done with just a few clicks or button presses. GenAI tools complete the long arduous tasks of yesteryear in a manner of seconds…with just a few button presses and clicks…with very minimal thought required by the user.
The ability to pull together so much information coupled with the ease of modifying the results by continued conversation with a human-like platform is why it’s made such an impact.
I mostly use GenAI tools to polish up emails and other written documentation. I’m hoping to expand my knowledge about how to use it and customize it. I’m also want to learn more about the negative impacts it may pose on society.
Learning the differences between traditional and generative AI was enlightening, I think I put all AI in one bucket, and it’s not a particularly positive bucket. Traditional AI feels safer, there are parameters that humans have designed to cage it in, generative feels almost feral or wild, and completely uncontrollable. AI brings wonder and awe at the possibilities, how can this invisible thing create all that in seconds, half seconds, nano seconds? And at the same time, in our race to ever evolve technologically, to become more efficient, faster, have every single thing at our fingertips at infinite speed…we end up losing what makes us human, and grounded to the world around us. When we start not caring or even recognizing if something is real, what does that say about us? If we give up the power of our brains to think and analyze, what kind of animal do we become? Do we devolve after millenia of evolution and achievement, now that we hand the reigns over to a processor who can type our emails and letters and make us happy by showing us videos of cats eating dumplings? I start this AI journey exceptionally skeptical, and while I don’t need to change my opinion, to seek knowledge is inherently human, and I’ll hang on to that.
It’s all very fascinating and scary at the same time. I have found it helpful for saving time with emails and other admin things, but do worry about the loss of creativity and critical thinking.
GenAI enables users to be more productive or efficient, completing things in a fraction of the time with less brain power utilized, which is a big reason why I think it’s been so impactful on society. We only have so much time in a day and there are constantly competing priorities; anything that can either hold our attention or streamline longwinded tasks is praised. We see it all the time with marketing, as companies are doing everything they can to have consumers spend their time (and eventually money) on them. By reducing the amount of time one spends researching something, it means that people will have more time to be more productive or consume more things.
I am a big proponent of traditional AI and it has led to amazing breakthroughs in specialized fields. I am highly skeptical of generative AI, in part because the hallucination rate can be very high and while it may create something “new” there is a lot of homogeneity in what it creates, so there is a bit of a sameness to it. I would like to spend less time doing rote/routine tasks and more time on things that need creativity, problem solving, human skills that doesn’t require me to spend a lot of time proofreading and fact checking everything.
I find that the use of both Traditional and Generative AI have a very real place in my future work place and not a far off one at that. The hesitation that comes when I go use my Co-pilot or ChapGPT is reassuring to me that I still understand that I am interfacing with AI and that I am relying on it for some part of my job or daily life; that gnaws at me some as I grapple with just how fast I want it to be a bigger part of my day. Will I even have a say as AI continues to evolve. I think the most difficult is how we manage our youth and what we can do to foster critical thinking!
I use co-pilot almost everyday at work. It makes my job easier. But, I do worry about the trade off. Am I going to lose the ability to do the things that I ask AI to do for me? For example I used to know all my friends, and families phone numbers. Once I started using a cell phone I didn’t need to memorize phone numbers anymore. So what is the tradeoff?
I think many people have found Gen AI exciting because it is able to produce very quickly the kind of writing that we really don’t want to do– send emails, write summaries, etc. I found the article on technological revolutions interesting because the author relies heavily on the word “information” without investigating the truth or falsity of the “information” disseminated. The printing press was very used for disseminating information on how to recognize and punish witches, and we have seen the power of social media to spread disinformation about elections, COVID, etc. If Gen AI is the next technological revolution, it is likely to be just as a much a tool of disinformation as previous technological advances.
Regarding technology, I am always reminded of the T.S. Eliot quote “Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” I worry that with so much information at our fingertips, we may lose our ability to think, to problem-solve, to question. Generative AI can be a great tool, but we have to use it as one tool in our toolbox; it is not the only tool.