Week 8 of #8WeeksofSummer blogging challenge  (Whew! We made it!) invites us to defend AI: “How can we make the case for not/unblocking ChatGPT and similar tools?”

First, I work in a high school. I teach students during the last four years before they officially become adults. I really don’t want to block their access. I really can’t block the AI systems, if the students turn off the wifi in the schoolhouse. And, they will certainly have access from home or anywhere away from the school building. I really, really want to teach them to use it safely. I want them to understand the pros and cons of using the systems. I want the students to do their own research, pose their own questions, and provide a safe environment from which they can explore AI.

Second, there really isn’t a safe environment. All experimentation and research on these systems is recorded somewhere. The saying that nothing ever disappears from the Internet is actually true when it comes to AI systems. They are not yet “learning” from what we do, but it is tracked and recorded.

According to Dr. Harris (2023), we need to be teaching students how generative AI works and how it can be positive and negative. Do students (and teachers) understand that generative AI is biased based on the training data it receives (Meyer et al., 2023)? Like any programming, it relies on what the programmer thought to provide and teach it (Donald, 2019). It is wrong to assume it has access to all knowledge ever and that all the knowledge everywhere was equally weighted (Donald, 2019). Without teaching students about general programming concerns, and AI in particular, they may blindly accept results instead of using results as a jumping-off place to do further investigation.

Third, you can be taught how to use AI for your benefit. It turns out that chatbots work the worst when we ask a general question without directing the source (Chen, 2023). It makes up information (hallucination) and provides, at times, really bad advice, recipes, and directions. But, if we tell ChatGPT to use a known expert website (or several such websites) to create the lesson plan we want, it comes back with working examples of what we need (Chen, 2023). As a teacher, we can direct ChatGPT to use websites we know about, and we can ask for help with differentiation, alternative lessons, and breaking down abstract or complex ideas (like standards) (Nieve, 2023). This opens a whole new door to using generative AI. We don’t blindly blunder about the internet, but look at real possibilities first and then direct the energy in the correct way. ChatGPT and other generative AIs become a partner in our searches. Let’s teach students how to use that aspect as soon as possible!

By the way, if you’re interested, Evolving Educators had ChatGPT write a blog response to why educators should use ChatGPT. Talk about a circular argument!

Vocabulary

• Artificial intelligence – “capability of a machine to imitate intelligent human behavior” (Merriam-Webster)
• Generative artificial intelligence – technology that generates text, images, or other media in response to prompts (Pasick, 2023).
• Hallucination – When generative AI makes up information to fulfill a request (Pasick, 2023).

References:

“Artificial intelligence.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/artificial%20intelligence. Accessed 22 Jul. 2023.

Chen, Brian X. (July 20, 2023). We’re using A.I. chatbots wrong. Here’s how to direct them. The New York Times (online). https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/20/technology/personaltech/ai-chatgpt-bing-directions.html

Donald, Samara J. (September 17, 2019). Don’t blame the AI, it’s the humans who are biased. Towards Data Science (online). https://towardsdatascience.com/dont-blame-the-ai-it-s-the-humans-who-are-biased-d01a3b876d58

Harris, Christopher. (2023). ChatGPT and Generative AI for School Librarians. School Library System of Genesee Valley BOCES. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7lsuzh5iwv7lcmy/AADJ1qGiOUiUCIQlsphCaXRwa?dl=0&preview=chatgpt+for+school+librarians.pdf

Meyer, J. G., Urbanowicz, R. J., Martin, P. C. N., O’Connor, K., Li, R., Peng, P.-C., Bright, T. J., Tatonetti, N., Won, K. J., Gonzalez-Hernandez, G., & Moore, J. H. (2023). ChatGPT and large language models in academia: opportunities and challenges. BioData Mining, 16(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13040-023-00339-9

Nieves, Kathryn. (June 6, 2023). 5 ways to use AI tools to meet students’ needs. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/using-ai-tools-differentiated-instruction.

Pasick, Adam. (March 27, 2023). Artificial intelligence glossary: Neural networks and other terms explained. The New York Times (online). https://www.nytimes.com/article/ai-artificial-intelligence-glossary.html

TicklingTech blog entries for the #8WeeksofSummer 2023:

• Week 1: AI in the School Library?
• Week 2: AI Has an Age Limit?
• Week 3: Plagiarism with AI?
• Week 4: Replacing Librarian Tasks with AI?
• Week 5: Images with AI?
• Week 6: Experimenting with AI Image Creation?
• Week 7: Librarians (& Teachers) Replacing AI?

Thank you to Dr. Penny Christensen for challenging me each summer to go further.