Artificial Intelligence Exploration

 My AI Exploration 

Image Source: incubator.ucf.edu

Before starting my journey in LIS 724 and creating this blog, I had little to no experience and knowledge of Artificial Intelligence (AI).  I had heard of it when it was still brand new and I had friends who talked about how fascinating it is but never dove into it too deeply. I have seen reels and videos of others using it to create portraits and videos but I have never done it myself. 

How Do I Use It?

In my professional life, I have explored AI by using it to create slides or images when I am short on time. I have found it to be a good tool to use when I simple do not have the time. I primarily work with younger students so they are not too familiar with what AI is. While I think it is great to use in a pinch, I am still hesitant to use it all the time. I think AI should be used as a tool to assist us not as something to do all our work. 

In my personal life I have used Chat GPT once or twice to summarize long passages but beyond this never explored more. From my limited knowledge of ChatGPT, I have found it very useful, especially for longer and more complicated texts. I wanted to state that this does not mean I will not be reading assigned texts but rather use AI as a tool to assist my understanding. This tool is definitely something that I will be using in the future!

Future Use

Now that I know more about AI and its various utilizations, I will be exploring more ways I can use it. For the purpose of this blog post, I wanted to use ChatGPT for something other than summarizing texts. I asked ChatGPT to write me a paragraph about AI in education and below is the result. 

Image Source: Screenshot by author using ChatGPT

I have to say that I was impressed with the results! I was expecting the writing to be more robotic than human. This example is one that can be both a affordance and constraint with this technology. On one side, this tool is able to save us time and effort in creating materials and give us ideas on what to include in our own text. On the other side, this tool can be used to avoid work or do the work for us. Like any other tool, we should be using AI for assistance. AI is not human, it does not have a moral compass or ethical frameworks. As technology and AI advance they do have their limitations. We as human beings have to chose to use it productively and with moral guidelines. I know that I will continue to use AI (ChatGPT) in the future in my professional and personal life. As I use AI I will be sure to remember to utilize it as a tool to help guide me.