“Maybe I can just wait AI out, and it’ll blow over by the time I retire.”
–said one educator, and we bet many of you are thinking it too!
Welcome to our Quick Bytes summer school series on “AI”!
In this virtual summer school, we are going to break AI down into manageable topics to help you understand what it is and how to use it. You’ll be finding ways to use AI in no time! (and maybe you won’t even want to retire!!)
Understanding AI
Artificial Intelligence, or “AI,” is a hot topic right now. But a lot of us still aren't sure what it is or how to use it at work. Don't worry, Quick Bytes is here to demystify AI concepts and explore its benefits and limitations.
What is AI
First, let’s get our terms straight! “AI” is a broad term for the entire field of artificial intelligence. Within AI, there's “generative AI,” where computers create new content by learning from existing content through “machine learning.”
Chat tools like ChatGPT are examples of generative AI – they generate new text, images, etc. They learn to write and converse like humans by consuming massive amounts of data. AI image generators, like Adobe Firefly, are also generative AI, but they're trained on images instead of text.
Benefits and limitations of AI
Benefits
The benefits of AI are becoming clear. Even the least tech-savvy among us can save time with AI, whether it's through faster web research or getting a little writing help. AI can even tackle major tasks, like the way we use it to translate our whole Extension website into Spanish. In our next post, we’ll show you how to start using AI tools.
Limitations
It’s important to know AI's limitations too. The key is understanding that all AI is trained on existing content. Knowing who trained it, what data it was trained on, and when it was last updated is crucial. For example, the free version of ChatGPT was last updated a year ago, so it can't reference anything more recent. Also, generative language AIs can be biased, make mistakes, and even "hallucinate" (make stuff up).
Uses for AI in Extension
Daily work
AI tools are incredibly helpful for improving your writing in emails, documents, and other daily tasks. There are AI tools to create checklists, check the tone of your emails, and even help you plan meetings. We'll explore some of these fun and useful tools in our next post.
Teaching and learning
Generative AI can be a game-changer in teaching and learning. While there's a lot of focus on how students use AI, what about educators? AI can be a valuable thought partner, offering fresh ideas, boosting creativity, aiding in web research, and saving time on lesson planning (source). We'll dive into some of these tools in this series too!
Stay tuned for more posts in our AI Summer School series! Let us know your questions below!
Article by Amy Baker, Extension Learning Technologies, amy@umn.edu
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