Written by: Joshua Stapleton
Article source: JOY! Magazine

Artificial intelligence (AI) might be the last technology that humanity will ever need to invent. If computers are bicycles for the mind, AI is a car. As with any other powerful technology, AI has the potential to completely transform the human way of life. It is up to us to ensure that this transformation is positive and equitable – this starts with education.

Demystifying AI
Instead of being explicitly programmed to perform a task, AI learns patterns by looking at big data. This data can be anything, but the spotlight is currently on large language models (LLMs) – neural-network-based architectures that have been trained on natural language data. By learning from gigantic volumes of writing (e.g., the whole of Wikipedia as a drop in the ocean), these models have developed an understanding of the underlying patterns of language itself.

Current capabilities
Current LLMs display emergent capabilities that would have been considered science fiction as recently as 2021. ChatGPT-4 can write original articles on virtually any topic, in any style, within seconds. LLMs can solve novel math problems, analyse literature, and perform complex reasoning. For all intents and purposes, they are functionally intelligent – like we are intelligent. You have no way of knowing whether or not the article you are currently reading was AI-generated.

Common misconceptions

AI AS GOOGLE
When we interact with an AI system, it is not scraping a gigantic database and returning relevant answers like Google. It generates responses from scratch based on its understanding of language. While AIs like ChatGPT are hosted online, they do not require an internet connection: even the largest current AI models could fit on a laptop and run independently.

AI AS PARROT
A conversation I have regularly:

Sceptic: “ChatGPT is just repeating what it’s seen in its training dataset!”
Me: Ask the same AI the same question twice and you will see it provides different answers.
Sceptic: “Okay… well maybe there is a bit of randomness, but it’s still just drawing from what it has already seen.”
Me: By this definition, every human is also a stochastic parrot; we learn how to speak by listening to others (like our parents) speak.

AI AS DETECTABLE
To my knowledge as an AI engineer, no tools have been developed that can robustly check whether language was AI-generated, despite numerous attempts. This is due to the nature of the plagiarism problem: say a student generates a paragraph-long answer using ChatGPT and changes 10 words; is this AI-generated, or student-generated? The answer is fuzzy. Also consider more deterministic disciplines, like maths or physics; in these fields, where things are more often right or wrong, a term like “plagiarism” begins to lose its meaning. There exists no meaningful solution to test for AI-generated content in most academic output, and I would argue that there can never be a solution – at least if education is to remain in its current, outdated form.

Concerns
AI is not something to be taken lightly. AI is not the “latest technology”; not some hyped-up crypto-esque fad that will die out in two years. AI is artificial intelligence; reflect on what that means beyond the buzzword. For the first time in history, we are sharing the planet with intelligence like ours – capable of deduction, induction, extrapolation, reasoning, empathy, and recursive self-improvement. The question of whether it is actually doing these things, or whether it is just “pretending”, is irrelevant.
It’s also important to understand that AI is a direct reflection of its dataset. In many ways, it is not just like us, it is us – at least a reflection. This realisation inevitably leads to the issue of bias – the pertinent question isn’t about completely eradicating bias from the dataset. Instead, it’s about the nature of bias we consciously decide to incorporate.

The way forward
The adoption of powerful AI technologies will cause massive upheavals across the education sector. Public discourse has already compromised from “AI could never do a teacher’s job” to “AI won’t replace jobs, but people who use AI effectively will replace those who don’t”. I hope this is all that happens; defining educators as people who educate in a primarily academic setting, we must realise that AI already poses an existential threat. However, this doesn’t have to be negative: it could give teachers more time to focus on nurturing a child’s values, empathy, and self-awareness – curating environments where children can explore their Christian beliefs, question the world, exercise their faith, and develop a sense of purpose.

In light of this, educators and students should learn to embrace AI responsibly. This involves technical training – learning to drive the mind-car of AI – as well as fostering an understanding of the capabilities, limitations, and ethical considerations, the rules of the road. Students should be equipped with digital literacy skills, including the ability to critically evaluate information and understand the mechanisms behind AI. Most importantly, we should work with AI to inspire children: not only to excel academically, but also to become responsible, compassionate, and spiritually aware individuals, positively influencing their character development for years to come. Now, more than ever, children and the world need this guidance and influence.

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Date published: 08/12/2023
Feature image: Image for illustrative purposes only. Artwork from www.rawpixel.com

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