We’ve reached the end of our journey- congratulations! What did you learn? What do you still want to know?
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Our More Resources page has a plethora of articles, videos, and websites to help you learn more about GenAI. Here are some of our favorite pieces on this ever-changing subject.
Candice recommends: They Asked an AI Chatbot Questions. The Answers Had Them Spiraling. “ChatGPT was designed to be conversational with users. This New York Times article details how chatbot discussions can quickly distort reality and lead people into conspiracy theories. A fascinating and cautionary tale.”
Camille recommends: O’Neil, L. (2023). These Women Tried to Warn Us About AI. Rolling Stone, 1379, 42. (alternate access to PDF).
Anna recommends: Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr. A novel about the preservation, influence, and power of story, knowledge, and human relationships set over multiple centuries from the fall of Constantinople to a futuristic society guided by AI. “There’s immense possibility in these [21st century] technologies, of course, but what makes us happy and gives meaning to our lives is our connection with each other, and our connection with stories, and our connection with species other than us.”
Troy recommends: The Whale and the Reactor: A Search for Limits in an Age of High Technology, Second Edition, by Langdon Winner
Paul recommends: Can AI teach us anything about our subconscious? I offered up my dreams to find out “AI chatbots have a tendency to exaggerate, but their verbose nature feels well-suited to the highly associative task of dream analysis” AND https://dreamsfaq.com/ “Get instant, accurate interpretations of your dreams using advanced AI technology. Our system understands the nuances of dream symbolism and provides personalized insights.” Also, “you can try our basic dream interpreter without an account… However, creating a free account gives you access to your personal dream journal, the full dream dictionary, and interactive chat features.”
Discuss:
How has your thinking changed, shifted, or evolved over the course of 16 things? What are you still curious about? Would you consider yourself an AI advocate, skeptic, or critic?
8 replies on “thing 16: Looking Back, Thinking Forward”
I was a skeptic at the start of “16 Things” and now I am so curious to learn more and keep abreast of AI related news, innovations and the effects on a personal level, within our community, and on a global scale. I love your recommendations above and for providing the More Resources page. Thank you all!
I think my mentality towards AI has remained pretty consistent, though I better understand now how much further research I need to do. I would say that I am healthily skeptical of AI, particularly due to the rapidly changing information that continues to be shared about it. The ethical considerations give me great caution about how much we should be using it, especially since so many people don’t know the full extent of them (myself included). I’m curious about how we will continue to address these concerns and how we can keep up with the changes as they come in a sustainable way.
My thinking has evolved over the course of 16 things, I did not know much about AI, Chat or Gem. What the programs can do or may help with. I was actually worried, because when we hear things they are generally from a negative angles. I am still curious and want to learn to use them more effectively. I don’t know what I would consider myself to be AI advocate, skeptic, or critic.
I do feel technology is a good, and may be helpful in many ways if used correctly, as with everything people have created.
Thank you for the opportunity to learn, AI things!
Thanks to all who helped develop this course! My perspective on AI has remained much the same throughout. I see it as a double-edged sword and believe that we (especially in academia) need to stay abreast, as best we can, of the technology and determine how we can help our students use it to learn more, not less.
I learned about Gemini Gem which I hadn’t used before and the importance of giving it detailed and specific instructions so that its output would be more to my liking.
AI has changed dramatically in the last two years, and I wonder what changes it will bring in the next 2, 4, 6 years and beyond. Everything will change. The question is how?
My overall thinking about AI hasn’t changed, but I have certainly learned several things that I will be able to use moving forward. (1) I find it fascinating that the biggest current use of AI is to help “organize life.” (2) The pointers toward how to document the use of AI so that you can go back and reference it will be valuable. It reminded me a bit of how one creates transcripts of conversations with interview subjects. (3) I learned about new tools — specifically Claude, Gemini Gems, and Semantic Scholar. (4) I will want to look more at how we can support students to integrate AI into the “practice” phase of learning. I have taught a variety of introductory statistics courses, and the students retain material best when they apply it to scenarios of interest to them (e.g., what a chemistry student and an apparel design student find interesting can be quite different). How can we integrate, evaluate, and assess (or should we) this into our pedagogy?
Stream of consciousness ahead. Sorry!
Overall, I’m still really skeptical of AI, and we really do need a containment strategy (re: Mustafa Suleyman). I can imagine the ways in which AI can help improve our lives and automate the more mundane/tedious tasks, but I’m not seeing companies or CEOs using it in that way. We’re talking about using AI to create 100% of their content.
I took the WGC AI and Ethics course this past year. The moral of the story for them was basically “Those who control data control AI.” We’ve been talking about data and how data is the new hot commodity for years, and why it’s a problem. AI is accelerating and exacerbating those issues.
Ultimately, AI is here to stay. I know I have to learn how to use it or be left behind, but staying on top of its controversies, the potential good and bad uses, and staying media literate will be imperative.
My view of chatbots being glorified internet search summarizes has not changed. But, through the “things” I have found new uses for them and can craft better prompts for more specific results. I have not heard of Google’s Gemini before and it seems like it would be very helpful being able to upload files with information rather than having to list them in each and every chat.
I also thought the image creation and image summary “things” were interesting. It showed me how asking for a specific image, but changing variables such as lighting, materials, and composition can give variable results very quickly.
This course was a nice overview of AI tools, the impact it has and also the drawbacks. I did enjoy the topics and bite-sized delivery. I think I am more interested in AI use now and keep finding ways to incorporate it into my work and personal life as I learned more about what it can do. There is a clear warning and the need to double check AI to ensure the outcome is correct and makes sense for sure. I feel more confident now that I am aware of short comings and can use AI more comfortably due to the knowledge gained. Thank you for putting this together and help me expand my understanding of this tool that is most likely not going anywhere anytime soon.