Peyton Mayhew, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, Interdisciplinary art, 3rd year undergraduate
When I approached this assignment, I thought that we know schools are terrified of using and abusing resources and students/teachers undermining the value of education by deferring everything and falling into the school of thought that AI holds all the answers. The use of AI continues to grow more prevalent in this age of technology—we can fear it and make guidelines, rules, and harsh outlines for how people are not to use these tools, but I don’t know if these rules are a help or a hindrance.
My idea for how UGA specifically can utilize AI to be beneficial for student education is to keep the guidelines and university rules against abusing it but offer resources and videos or have informed people make educational, instructional videos for how students can utilize AI for their notes, effective ways of studying, practice tests, general questions, the initial ideas for projects or assignments for the generative process, and maybe in classes, allow students to scratch the itch they have for using AI by giving an easy, low-impact assignment where they are permitted and encouraged to use AI and acquaintances thoughts and ideas for the execution of their own or a group project. This concept would engage students more than the traditional ways of learning, and it would encourage change and growth among staff and faculty. We already have tools like Grammarly, which uses AI to generate the best ways a sequence of letters and words should be presented to a viewer. There are likely many other tools that students can use like this, which use AI.
Don’t force students or teachers to do anything they’re uncomfortable with, but give them the option to utilize AI positively rather than shy away from the unknown. AI, on the surface, seems like the first IBM computer. I may be generalizing too much, but that machine needed people educated in many styles of math and engineering for it to function. It was a powerless box without humans. AI relies on human function and interaction. If we do not engage, AI has no purpose. As it grows, it poses a significant threat to the environment, such as a carbon footprint, and environmental changes, such as water pollution or soil erosion, for which people are working on solutions. According to ChatGPT, “In essence, while AI can perform complex tasks, its effectiveness and relevance are entirely dependent on human involvement. Without users, AI systems would have no function or purpose.”
I came to this idea by speculating and asking ChatGPT many questions about why colleges and schools dislike AI. I’m also not fond of it, so there was bias in my approach.