Photo via Marketing and Communications
KRYSTYNA PORTUGUES-KLOS
Special to The Leader
The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and different resources that “do the work for you” have become extremely popular with students, artists and professionals alike.
Research and Information Literacy Services Librarian Christina Hilburger of Reed Library believes that AI has the potential to be both dangerous and helpful, giving it the same likeness of social media.
On Nov. 7, there was a workshop for students surrounding AI, where discussions were held and questions were answered surrounding the topic.
At the workshop, students reported feeling lukewarm about AI.
They stated that they felt bombarded with new technologies coming out all the time, so something like artificial intelligence wasn’t too surprising.
The faculty AI roundtable discussion on Nov. 15 recorded different perceptions.
The roundtable had some astounding remarks to make about AI and its capabilities, as well as its shortcomings in the academic world.
They have noticed that students have been interacting with AI, and some professors have begun using Turnitin as a platform to detect its use in assignments.
Turnitin is one of several programs that detects AI by recognizing patterns and tracking familiarity of relevant information.
Artificial intelligence programs like ChatGPT that have the ability to sound human can make the use of AI virtually undetectable.
There are ethical concerns when it comes to AI usage in the academic setting.
Job replacement problems, potential for bias and hallucinations are some of the more complicated matters that are approached in the topic of AI.
Hallucinations, meaning references that may not even exist, are an issue that arises when AI is asked questions that are more complicated, such as researching new evidence and constructing new arguments.
There is little to no existing material that the AI can read or reference for these questions, so the program will simply make something up instead. This can be a problem with research articles that require accurate references to go back to for study.
Comparatively, AI can also be extremely helpful in many ways. When it comes to comprehending historical documents, cursive that is hundreds of years old can be analyzed and deciphered into text.
Using artificial intelligence as a second editor for essays and other academic journals is also a perk of the program. Hilburger says that ChatGPT can help create new lines of basic code that can aid in the face of the Reed Library website.
When it comes to complicated research questions, AI can help you create new keywords and search terms to search for articles and journals to support your argument.
According to Hilburger, AI isn’t going away any time soon, and neither are librarians. Librarians are constantly evolving along with new technology, and are studying new ways to incorporate it into the resources at their disposal. Hilburger, in collaboration with the Office of Online Learning, is creating a course on AI literacy for students to take in order to be well-informed on the proper uses of artificial intelligence.
This course is expected to be available in time for the upcoming spring semester.
Like social media, AI has the potential to be both dangerous and helpful.
With the innovation of new programs and the advancement of these internet resources, AI can both help and hurt you if you aren’t careful and well-informed.
Is AI the future, or just a future failure?