San Jose State tech experts dove deep on how to engage with artificial intelligence and ChatGPT in a productive way during the webinar “AI Tools, Tips, & Traps” in the Martin Luther King Jr., Library Thursday.
ChatGPT is an AI chatbot created by OpenAI programmed to use AI to answer questions based on a prompt, according to the OpenAI website.
“[AI is] really about considering the pros and the cons, the risks, the rewards and everything in between and as academic focus as we can, so we’ll all come away better prepared for this future,” said Jon Oakes, the technology coordinator for the MLK Library and webinar moderator.
MLK Library Dean Michael Meth said AI has the potential to be the most technological significant development since the internet in the mid ’90s or the iPhone in the 2000s.
“When I think about artificial intelligence, I, like so many folks, can on the one hand, see the tremendous potential and good these technologies can do, but also at the same time I can be incredibly scared about it,” Meth said.
Meth said he has experience using AI for text and image generation and there is something magical about ChatGPT.
“Everything has been completed in mere seconds, perfectly formatted, no spelling mistakes, no missing punctuation or grammatical errors and usually handled with a really high degree of patience and politeness,” Meth said regarding ChatGPT.
Meth said AI tech is notably growing at a rapid speed.
“Most of us probably did not hear or know about this [AI] before November or December of last year, and now we’re hosting symposia to figure out how our world will be changed and we barely understand how the technology works given the time we haven’t had time to really experiment and explore,” Meth said. “And yet, we’re seeing it already in so many different facets of our lives.”
Keynote speaker Kent Bye, a journalist and podcaster who engages in discussion of virtual and augmented reality as a philosopher, said most people already have a very direct relationship with AI, including on social media platforms that use AI algorithms to drive content.
He said machine learning is a big driver of large language models in generative AI.
Machine learning is a branch of AI that focuses on the use of data and algorithms used to mimic human actions to improve computer performance, according to the International Business Machines Corporation website.
“The first wave of social media had all these dimensions of AI, and it was saying, ‘OK we’re just going to give everyone a voice to connect with your friends and join communities,’ ” Bye said. “At the end of the day, you have all these different dimensions of addiction, disinformation, mental health and censorship.”
He said AI is on the back end of unintended consequences of social media.
Bye said the idea behind responsible innovation should involve public engagement and not be strictly driven by companies.
He said the U.S. is 10 to 30 years behind what the European Union is doing regarding regulation.
“There’s certain applications of AI that the European Union are going to completely prohibit, especially when it comes to police use of artificial intelligence,” Bye said. “There’s something to have high risk where you have some obligations of disclosure of data and reporting to the European Union.”
SJSU education professor Roxana Marachi said her early research was on evaluation of social and emotional learning programs in schools.
“I saw a lot of programs turn digital and extra, very sensitive, social, emotional, behavioral data from students,” Marachi said. “I became very concerned about where these data are going and how they are being used.”
She said people aren’t paying enough attention to the harmful effects of predictive analytics and how AI affects children behaviorally.
Jill Strykowski, MLK Library cataloging and metadata analyst, works in electronic resources and metadata for libraries.
“There are professionals within libraries that curate metadata, create metadata, but we only have control over so much, and when it comes to ChatGPT it’s apparent that we have control over almost not a bit,” Strykowski said.
Despite its risks, some SJSU tech experts expressed that the AI can be used as a tool.
Kohar Scott, associate professor in the department of design, said she started to introduce AI as a tool for inspiration in her first and second year classes.
“I’m super excited because I think it is for us and appealing for an avenue of reintroducing critical thought,” Scott said. “It's not removing because you still need to have some understanding of what you’re looking for and I think that collaborative aspect is what’s really super valuable for us as educators and students using the tool.”
James Morgan, department of art and art history lecturer, teaches a course on AI tools for artists.
Morgan said in his introduction to digital media arts class, students write a 1,500 word paper on what new media and digital media are, asking them to find compelling artists with whom to connect.
Morgan said he spoke with librarians to discuss how students should cite ChatGPT because he doesn’t want students to worry about plagiarism.
“We came up with the thing we decided we’re gonna use in class is to list the version of ChatGPT and the prompt,” Morgan said. “When I saw those in the references for the paper, it gave me a much deeper understanding of what the students were asking.”
