I have been so so wary of it as a secondary school teacher, and am pushing to do as much "creation" and "analysis" work as possible away from screens which has had a fabulous effect of not only developing kids' thinking but also developing better classroom culture. That said, I'm finding it's really helpful for providing structure and organization to both me and the students I teach! When they ask it for content or higher level thinking it's ineffective, but when they ask for help structuring a podcast or an essay it's helpful. I'm ok with it helping us organize our thoughts as long as we do the thinking! Isn't that the goal of AI in a perfect world? To streamline the mundane in order to allow humanity more space for creative endeavours?
Oh I completely agree with this - makes me think of the meme that was like "I don't want ai to do my writing so I can do the dishes. I want ai to do my dishes so I can do my writing". This is that!
Let students use ai for "doing the dishes" so they can carry out their creative tasks!
As someone who used to work in software engineering - I have so many feelings about AI. I won't get into all of them for the sake of not leaving a novel lol.
I agree that it's a great way to streamline certain tasks. For use cases like writing newsletters for your mom, it can be harmless, fun and useful! After all, running a business is hard and if you can reduce time in one area to focus on the product, why not!
My concerns with AI and honestly any technology is it's only as good and ethical as the people who created them. Notoriously, technology isn't initially created with a focus on inclusiveness and equality (off the top of my head examples: apple watch not working on darker skin tones, seatbelts that aren't as effective for women, etc.) These biases may not be intentional, but their impact is real and sometimes fatal. ChatGPT even warns you on their conversations that some information generated by its tools may be incorrect or outdated!
Someone using it to write all their articles on Substack for them feels downright disingenuous - especially if that person is also profiting off of their community via paid newsletters, affiliate links, etc. What are their motives - are they here to take part in the community or just profit off of it?
I'm all about becoming more efficient and streamlining where you can but I think a little awareness of the impact of the tools we use can also go a long way in how we choose to use it.
You're so right! There are still so many unknowns when it comes to AI and it's easy to take the stuff it says as truth when it's actually a construction of the most plausible answer given the information it gets its substance from.
Society and the internet is inherently racist and sexist, so therefore, so is AI. I know they did a study on which applicants AI would accept to the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and since the applications it had been practicing on was mostly written by males, it accepted more men into the school no matter the substance of the application. Crazy!! But true.
I am a hardlined, no fun, strident hater of all AI so I felt this really hard. Everyone I know in all creative industries has been hit hard by AI and I have seen really prestigious and well-paid jobs just completely disappear into thin air! THAT SAID--this doll trend really tempted me lol. I get the appeal, I just wish we were not in the scary part of the sci-fi movie.
Try the doll trend if you want to! I think learning to navigate AI ever so slightly is a good way of getting to know your enemy (lol). No, I'm kind of joking. But I will say that I'm not very impressed with my attempts at AI - even the newsletter stuff that I could edit and then use was underwhelming compared to what I was expecting from a source of this size.
I'm with you on not loving AI as an artist and a writer in the first place (and also as someone who watched Terminator growing up and just feels like everyone pushing AI must have not gotten the same message I did from that movie) but also... I've been learning a lot about how bad it is for the environment! I think they can actually tell you how much fresh water each task you have Chat GPT do uses. They use up tons of water to cool the data centers. (Or something like that. I'm not an expert and I haven't done enough research. I just stopped using it.)
I have been so so wary of it as a secondary school teacher, and am pushing to do as much "creation" and "analysis" work as possible away from screens which has had a fabulous effect of not only developing kids' thinking but also developing better classroom culture. That said, I'm finding it's really helpful for providing structure and organization to both me and the students I teach! When they ask it for content or higher level thinking it's ineffective, but when they ask for help structuring a podcast or an essay it's helpful. I'm ok with it helping us organize our thoughts as long as we do the thinking! Isn't that the goal of AI in a perfect world? To streamline the mundane in order to allow humanity more space for creative endeavours?
Oh I completely agree with this - makes me think of the meme that was like "I don't want ai to do my writing so I can do the dishes. I want ai to do my dishes so I can do my writing". This is that!
Let students use ai for "doing the dishes" so they can carry out their creative tasks!
As someone who used to work in software engineering - I have so many feelings about AI. I won't get into all of them for the sake of not leaving a novel lol.
I agree that it's a great way to streamline certain tasks. For use cases like writing newsletters for your mom, it can be harmless, fun and useful! After all, running a business is hard and if you can reduce time in one area to focus on the product, why not!
My concerns with AI and honestly any technology is it's only as good and ethical as the people who created them. Notoriously, technology isn't initially created with a focus on inclusiveness and equality (off the top of my head examples: apple watch not working on darker skin tones, seatbelts that aren't as effective for women, etc.) These biases may not be intentional, but their impact is real and sometimes fatal. ChatGPT even warns you on their conversations that some information generated by its tools may be incorrect or outdated!
Someone using it to write all their articles on Substack for them feels downright disingenuous - especially if that person is also profiting off of their community via paid newsletters, affiliate links, etc. What are their motives - are they here to take part in the community or just profit off of it?
We're also now learning that AI has a far greater environmental impact than we initially thought( see: https://www.npr.org/2024/07/12/g-s1-9545/ai-brings-soaring-emissions-for-google-and-microsoft-a-major-contributor-to-climate-change)
I'm all about becoming more efficient and streamlining where you can but I think a little awareness of the impact of the tools we use can also go a long way in how we choose to use it.
You're so right! There are still so many unknowns when it comes to AI and it's easy to take the stuff it says as truth when it's actually a construction of the most plausible answer given the information it gets its substance from.
Society and the internet is inherently racist and sexist, so therefore, so is AI. I know they did a study on which applicants AI would accept to the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and since the applications it had been practicing on was mostly written by males, it accepted more men into the school no matter the substance of the application. Crazy!! But true.
I would love to say I'm surprised to hear that, but it unfortunately tracks. I wish it wasn't true.
I am a hardlined, no fun, strident hater of all AI so I felt this really hard. Everyone I know in all creative industries has been hit hard by AI and I have seen really prestigious and well-paid jobs just completely disappear into thin air! THAT SAID--this doll trend really tempted me lol. I get the appeal, I just wish we were not in the scary part of the sci-fi movie.
Try the doll trend if you want to! I think learning to navigate AI ever so slightly is a good way of getting to know your enemy (lol). No, I'm kind of joking. But I will say that I'm not very impressed with my attempts at AI - even the newsletter stuff that I could edit and then use was underwhelming compared to what I was expecting from a source of this size.
I'm with you on not loving AI as an artist and a writer in the first place (and also as someone who watched Terminator growing up and just feels like everyone pushing AI must have not gotten the same message I did from that movie) but also... I've been learning a lot about how bad it is for the environment! I think they can actually tell you how much fresh water each task you have Chat GPT do uses. They use up tons of water to cool the data centers. (Or something like that. I'm not an expert and I haven't done enough research. I just stopped using it.)
I saw that just the other day too! So many unknowns still
Oh no, I wonder what ChatGPT would say I write about 🫠
Please ask it! It was truly hilarious😂