With a technology as fast-paced and advanced as AI (Artificial Intelligence), it can cause the public to feel left in the dark or wary about exactly how advanced AI has become.
According to the University of Queensland’s Brain Institute, the use of AI in society started in 1642 when Blaise Pascal constructed the first mechanical calculating machine. By 1950, Alan Turing had invented the Turing Test, which was designed to assess the knowledge of a machine or how advanced it was, and by 1955, the term “Artificial Intelligence” was coined during a conference.
In 1965, ELIZA, a language model machine, was invented. ELIZA was considered one of the first chatbots. It was named after the character Eliza Doolittle from the play Pygmalion (1913), who learned to speak by mirroring the other characters’ language patterns. In 2011, the AI program International Business Machines (IBM) Watson defeated the previous Jeopardy champions, and personal assistants like Google Gemini and Siri became popular on cellphones.
AI is a machine that can simulate human personalities by learning speech and language, problem-solving and decision-making. It is a type of computer that can learn by being exposed to a kind of information and analyzing it. An AI is coded with a neural network, composed of layers of nodes and databases to process information, and adjust its behavior or knowledge based on what it has “learned”.
There are four types of AI: Artificial intelligence (1950s), which are machines that were made to demonstrate human intelligence. The model after that is Machine learning (1980s), which learns by analyzing historical data. After machine learning, Deep learning (2010s) was invented, which is a type of machine learning model made to specifically imitate a human’s brain function, and Generative (GEN) AI (2020s), which is made specifically for creating original content, such as art or stories, as per IBM.
GEN AI is the newest, most advanced and most commonly used type of AI. Due to the machine’s ability to “learn”, it can evolve itself rather quickly as new information is processed.
Popular social media platforms, such as TikTok or Instagram, use AI to create algorithms. It takes data from someone’s account information, such as how long one watched a video, or what type of images or videos are liked or favorited. It then processes this information and pushes similar content onto one’s social media page.
Due to the nature of AI and its ability to learn for itself, people can be very divided in their opinions. Some may think that AI is getting too advanced, and may feel wary of machines that can learn and advance themselves without the help of humans, giving the sense that it cannot be controlled. Others, however, feel excited about this technology and what it can do. They may find it fascinating that a machine can advance itself without human help, and how it can change the future. They believe that working with AI, rather than fearing it, can provide valuable skills in life in general or in the workplace.
“I do not think that [AI] is something that we can push back or delay conversations [on]. It is not going anywhere. From an educator’s standpoint, instead of using AI as a threat, [we should teach students] how to use it appropriately as a tool, and not as a crutch,” Mr. Cole Eged, who teaches a unit in AI Literacy in his World History class, said.
Today, some skills of a basic AI model include the ability to recognize, interpret, and respond in natural human language; it can also produce a medical diagnosis based on description or image, with reasonable accuracy. It can also create realistic images and even art, whose opinions divide.
Some believe that AI art is beneficial to society because it cuts the cost of paying someone for design or artwork, and the realism of the latest AI technology can be impressive for those who are interested in AI’s development.
However, others feel that it is morally wrong to use AI to make artwork or generate pictures. Art is a common tool of emotional expression and shows the “soul” of the artist. Those who take this stance may believe that without emotion or “soul”, art is not art or one cannot make true art without feeling or a soul.
“I generally think it is bad because a lot of people have the idea that it is art, but it is not…because there is no human thought into it, [as it is] a prompt for a picture, not human ideas,” Ashlynn Wagner (11), who does art as a hobby, said.