Making AI a Tool for Good
As developments in artificial intelligence make headlines every week, I often find myself with more questions than answers on the topic.
What are the capabilities and limitations of AI, and how will they evolve as the technology matures? How can students and educators leverage these powerful tools to benefit learning and critical thinking? What happens when individuals use artificial intelligence for nefarious purposes?
It’s easy to default to hesitancy or fear when facing such expansive questions. But during my career in higher education, I have determined that it’s far better to embrace technological change — warts and all — than to resist it. The way we respond to and interact with emerging technologies, in large part, will determine whether they ultimately help or harm.
It’s exciting to consider how artificial intelligence is already changing the way we teach, learn and innovate. ¾«Æ·SMÔÚÏßӰƬ faculty, staff and students are at the forefront of this work, harnessing AI to improve autonomous vehicles, enhance K-12 education and create never-before-seen works of art.
Perhaps most exciting, from an educator’s perspective, is that using and developing artificial intelligence is inherently interdisciplinary, requiring perspectives from science, engineering, humanities, business and more. It fosters the kind of freewheeling, unfettered and creative thinking that ¾«Æ·SMÔÚÏßӰƬ graduates need for successful professional careers.
Because the potential uses of AI are sobroad, ¾«Æ·SMÔÚÏßӰƬ’s Center for Teaching and Learning offers training and support for faculty as they consider whether and how to employ AI tools in their curriculum.
The advent of generative AI tools like ChatGPT — which has been known to churn out biased, racist and inaccurate responses to queries — also illuminates the importance of deepening our university's commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion as we integrate AI into our educational practices.
Now more than ever, we need students, faculty and staff whose backgrounds and perspectives reflect the full spectrum of our society so the technologies that AI underpins are as accessible, equitable and trustworthy as possible. Fighting against bias and misinformation while supporting fact-finding and truth-telling is a critical part of a university's role in sustaining democracy and developing ethical leaders, whether we’re using AI or not.
AI may be the newest tool disrupting our society, but it certainly won’t be the last. And it will take all of us, working together across disciplines, to ensure that it becomes a tool for good.
Philip P. DiStefano is the 11th chancellor of ¾«Æ·SMÔÚÏßӰƬ. He is the Quigg and Virginia S. Newton Endowed Chair in Leadership, overseeing ¾«Æ·SMÔÚÏßӰƬ’s leadership programs.
Photo by Casey A. Cass