AI in Education Bi-weekly Digest - Issue #10

Welcome to the 10th issue! In recent news and articles, experts have warned about the potential threats posed by AI-enhanced images in democratic processes, calling for ethical principles to regulate their use in politics. Meanwhile, the University of Hong Kong has integrated AI tools like ChatGPT into its teaching curriculum, empowering students in generative AI while imposing limits on the number of questions per user. Harvard Business School professor Karim Lakhani advocates the adoption of ChatGPT to increase efficiency and generate new ideas. Additionally, discussions on the use of ChatGPT in education and its impact on scientific discovery are explored.

News and Interviews:

AI-enhanced Images a 'Threat to Democratic Processes', Experts Warn - Experts have called for action on the use of AI-generated or enhanced images in politics after a Labour MP shared a manipulated image of Rishi Sunak pouring a pint. The image has led to concerns about the potential for such images to be used during next year’s UK election campaign. While it is unclear whether the image of Sunak was manipulated using an AI tool, experts have warned that such programs have made it easier and quicker to produce convincing fake text, images and audio. There are growing calls for ethical principles to be established to regulate the use of AI in politics.

University of Hong Kong Allows Artificial Intelligence Program ChatGPT for Students, But Strict Monthly Limit on Questions Imposed - The University of Hong Kong (HKU) has announced that it will integrate artificial intelligence (AI) tools into its teaching curriculum, allowing students to freely access software like ChatGPT and Dall-E, with a limited number of questions per user. The university aims to empower students to become leaders in generative AI (GenAI). While students can use AI for assignments, there will be a cap of 20 prompts per person across the two tools to prevent unauthorized access. HKU acknowledges that using AI may impact traditional forms of assessment and plans to introduce alternative evaluation methods, such as oral examinations, to assess students' understanding.

Harvard Business School AI Guru on Why Every Main Street Shop Should Start Using ChatGPT - Harvard Business School professor Karim Lakhani believes that AI can help small businesses to scale, scope, and continually learn, leading to increased efficiency and productivity. For instance, ChatGPT can be used as a thought partner, helping small business owners to generate new ideas and lower the cost of cognition. Lakhani

Episode 123: Artificial Intelligence in Education - In a podcast interview, Maria Gini, a professor in the department of computer science and engineering at the University of Minnesota, discussed the use of ChatGPT, a language model AI that is designed to understand and generate human-like text responses. Gini believes that ChatGPT can revolutionize teaching and learning, but that it should complement, rather than replace, traditional learning methods. She also highlighted the need for thoughtful and balanced implementation of AI in the classroom, as well as the importance of considering the ethical concerns associated with AI. Gini believes that AI is going to affect everything and that everybody needs to know something about it.

AI Companies Aren't Afraid of Regulation - We Want It to Be International And Inclusive - AI has already made significant contributions, such as improving our understanding of diseases through discoveries like AlphaFold. However, AI also poses challenges, including bias, misinformation, and irresponsible development. To ensure AI serves society responsibly, it is necessary to adopt principles prioritizing safety and innovation and build new institutions with expertise in AI governance. Multinational governance and international policy alignment are crucial to address the global opportunities and risks of AI. Future-proof laws and outcome-driven frameworks are needed, along with collaboration between government, tech companies, and civil society.

Articles & Blogs:

A Summary: Student Debate on AI in Education - A student debate on AI in education revealed interesting insights. Students were divided but generally agreed that AI offers more opportunities than threats. The full recording is now on YouTube.

Scientific Discovery in the Age of Artificial Intelligence – Artificial intelligence (AI) is playing an increasingly important role in scientific discovery, helping scientists to generate hypotheses, design experiments, collect and interpret large datasets, and gain insights that might not have been possible using traditional scientific methods alone. The article discusses breakthroughs over the past decade that include self-supervised learning, geometric deep learning, and generative AI methods, which can create designs such as small-molecule drugs and proteins. However, the article also highlights the challenges of integrating AI into scientific discovery, including poor data quality and stewardship, and the need for a better understanding of when AI approaches need improvement.

How Teachers Can Use ChatGPT | ChatGPT for Teachers – The article highlights the growing use of technology in education and the benefits of using Chat GPT to create interactive learning environments, exploring practical examples of how teachers can utilize Chat GPT to enhance teaching and customize the learning experience.

VIMA: General Robot Manipulation with Multimodal Prompts – The journal paper introduces prompt-based learning, a successful approach in natural language processing, and explores its application in robotics. The authors demonstrate that a wide range of robot manipulation tasks can be effectively expressed using multimodal prompts that combine textual and visual information. They develop a simulation benchmark consisting of procedurally-generated tabletop tasks, expert trajectories for imitation learning, and an evaluation protocol for systematic generalization. The paper presents VIMA, a transformer-based robot agent designed to process these prompts and generate motor actions.

How Artificial Intelligence Is Changing the Way We Live And Work - Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming various aspects of our lives, from healthcare to transportation to customer service. In healthcare, AI enables earlier and more accurate disease diagnosis, personalized treatment plans, improved drug discovery, and enhanced patient care. AI optimizes traffic flow, improves public transportation, and contributes to the development of self-driving cars, making transportation more efficient. In homes, AI automates tasks, controls appliances, and enhances security systems, creating smarter and more comfortable living spaces. AI personalizes learning, providing tailored recommendations, feedback, tutoring, and progress tracking for students. Additionally, AI improves customer service by automating tasks, personalizing interactions, providing real-time support, and anticipating needs. Despite the potential benefits, challenges such as data privacy, algorithm bias, job displacement, and ethical considerations must be addressed. However, the future of AI remains promising as it continues to evolve and improve our lives.

Tools/Resources:

Disclaimer: AI in Education has no affiliation with any highlighted free or commercial products in this section.

AI-Generated Content in The Classroom: Considerations for Course Design - The guide emphasizes that Illinois State's academic integrity policy already prohibits the use of unauthorized AI content generators. It provides strategies for detecting AI-generated content in assignments and suggests incorporating discussions about AI content generation to educate students about its usage and the importance of avoiding it. The guide aims to help instructors maintain academic integrity and promote meaningful classroom discussions on the topic.

You.com – You.com is a customizable search engine that utilizes AI to deliver relevant results from the web and apps, allowing users to sort and prioritize them.

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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in the linked posts are those of the speakers and or their entities and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of the project AI in Education, Centre for Learning Enhancement And Research, and The Chinese University of Hong Kong.