AI: good or bad?
Just before the autumn break I gave a lesson about AI to two upper-year groups. What fun that was! (More about that later, no doubt. ð)
During the break I was in the staff room when the question came: "A talk about AI? Are you positive or negative then?"
A good question. Because it makes quite a difference whom you invite: there is a lot of difference in knowledge and attitude between speakers.
My answer was: "Moderately positive; I see opportunities and dangers."
For a week I thought about it (and by now my answer has become too long for the staff room ðĪŠ).
I notice that I look at it on different levels, as if there are rings around one another.
In the innermost circle, that of my personal AI use, I see mainly opportunities. I can do my work better, reflect more deeply, get to the bottom of things and give shape to creative ideas. (Of course there are also risks, for example that AI, if I do not prompt carefully, tells me too much what I want to hear, or that at times I become superficial or dependent on it.)
The next circle, that of family and children in general, is somewhat less positive and leans toward the moderate side. AI is on the one hand a wonderful resource: for learning, developing and even for hobbies. It helps lower thresholds.
On the other hand there are risks. With wrong use AI can negatively influence the development of the young brain. And it is a vulnerable area, especially for children and young people who are still searching for their identity or are susceptible to outside influences.
In the outermost circle, that of the wider world, I see mainly dangers: the enormous economic interests, the concentration of power among a few tech companies and the way AI penetrates education, often not steered by teachers or schools, but through the tools that pupils use. (At the same time I also see positive sides here: AI can mean a lot for healthcare, for more efficient policy and even for the environment. But as long as AI mainly consumes instead of genuinely contributing to environmental saving, that grates with me.)
Maybe I am missing a circle. And that is allowed: in a dynamic world like AI we should above all dare to keep refining. ð