New technology will always be a hot topic of discussion, that has rarely been more apparent than at the Feb. 15 Presidents’ Council meeting, which gave us our first details on a proposed Artificial Intelligence task force.
The task force will tackle emerging education technologies such as AI, Augmented Reality (AR), and Virtual Reality (VR) and how Delta College might integrate and utilize them.
“I don’t like reading about AI. It terrifies me,” said Lisa Lawrenson, President of Delta College and the chair of this new task force.
The purpose of the task force as outlined in the Presidents’ Council presentation is to “inventory the use of the new educational technologies across the institutions” and “recommend a way forward to address emerging technologies in higher education with input from all stakeholders.”
“We need to talk first about what it is,” said Lawrenson.
The task force will be working to gain insight into the nature of these new technologies so that policy decisions can be made at a later date.
What we colloquially refer to as AI covers a broad swath of technological systems, but what is most commonly talked about currently is actually called a Large Language model, which has risen in prominence since the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT 3.5 in November 2023. Almost immediately concerns were raised that the technology posed a risk to the integrity of academic systems.
“43 percent of college students have used ChatGPT or a similar AI application of those… 50 percent say they’ve used them to help complete assignments and exams,” according to a study by Lyss Welding for BestColleges.com, a college ranking website, in March 2023.
The Pew Research Center noted that teenagers have been using ChatGPT to complete schoolwork.
“Teens in higher grade levels are particularly likely to have used the chatbot to help them with schoolwork” they wrote in an article released Nov. 16, 2023.
A presentation was given to the board on Feb. 20 about various technologies that fall under the purview of this new task force. The presentation given by Dr. Thomas Greene, a consultant, had no information about the task force itself but gives a bit of insight on the tone that the discussion might take.
“We’re on a semester to quarters system here. That whole system is going to be looked at and realized that it is. And it is a dated assumption about how students experience college” said Greene, highlighting the potential use cases for AI, and how it might change the way Delta college structures a student’s time.
Greene was quick to speak about the potential benefits of AI, a distinctly different tone than what the rest of the world has been taking. Which has been distinctly harsher to the burgeoning technology.
In December 2023, The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft over concerns that their language models may have been infringing on their copyright in their training datasets
“The Times objected after it discovered that Defendants were using Times content without permission to develop their models and tools,” the lawsuit reads.
“Millions of articles from the New York Times were used to train the chatbots that now compete with it,” alleges the lawsuit
Beyond questions of plagiarism, the applications of AI have led to far more complex ethical issues. AI has been used in the generation of “Deep Fakes,” The process of digitally altering or manipulating one person’s likeness, for years now. Though it may have benign uses, it’s mostly gained infamy from its use in creating non-consensual nude photos of celebrities.
One of these kinds of “Deep Fakes” of pop royalty, Taylor Swift, began circulating on X, formerly Twitter, in late January. The photos caused the phrase “Taylor Swift AI” to trend for hours eventually leading X to block searches for the phrase.
Though there was limited legal recourse, the spotlight was placed on the issue by such a prominent figure, with even the white house urging action.
“Of course congress should take legislative action” said Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, on Jan 26. of this year.
Although it’s a different kind of AI it has done nothing to help the technologies ailing public image. The field is set for AI to be a heated topic for years to come and Delta is preparing to enter that discussion.