Orono – With the rise of artificial intelligence, main educators work together to understand both the advantages and disadvantages of how technology is used, and understand what it means for the future.
This month, the University of Maine held its second annual Main AI conference, bringing together statewide experts, educators and others to explore and learn more about the topic.
Some of the meetings that include thoughts on bias and the environmental costs of AI can be viewed online.
Professor Umaine of New Media, who was also the facilitator of the conference's AI for Education and Creativity panel, said in an interview with Spectrum News that the ability to use AI in one way is to combine it with work done by humans.
“We also worked with students and faculty to work with, 'Hey, what is the proper use of a tool? What is inappropriate?' and is it possible for humans to outsource what they really are good at, while still maintaining what they are good at in the loop,” Ipolito said. “For example, one of the challenges I will give is the “AI sandwich.” Here, we are able to be good at AI, but we are doing this kind of interview with humans.
However, Ippolito said one of the potential drawbacks of AI in education is that it can take away the skill building that comes with traditional classwork.
“AI poses promises and dangers for educators and students. It has the advantage of, 'Wow, students can create things they couldn't create before,” Ippolito says. “On the other hand, there is also the risk of having this kind of knock-off experience. It loses the sense of skill building and personal growth that you get from traditional classrooms.”
Ippolito said it is important to continue to properly consider how to use AI.
“That's a real misunderstanding [A.I.] It's like a calculator. “Well, I have calculators, they're destructive and now they're incorporating calculators.” [But] If you ask the calculator to multiply by 12, you won't get the wrong answer,” Ippolito said. So you need to know how these things work to know when they are to be used and when not to use them. ”
For more information, please visit umaine.edu or ai-impact-risk.com.
“There's a lot of research on AI at the University of Maine, but in terms of its impact on the class, it's like a classroom-by-class basis,” Ippolito said. “Some teachers are like, 'I don't know if this is good or not,' and all other teachers are in there. And what we're trying to do is support everyone in growth looking at the tops and shortcomings of these technologies. ”
