Is AI social?

I'm not sure that it is, but I've been in a deep dive into AI for my other class, and for prep work for my position starting this fall.  One thing appears clear--a whole like of training needs to go into AI literacy.  I think it is nice to think that we'll all "figure it out" through using it.  But Dr. Dennen's post on LinkedIn shows that even scholars are duped by AI.  Working with authors over the years on large textbook projects, it takes a lot of discipline to keep all your sources and citations sorted out.  And some people are more diligent about this than others.  And really, no one, anywhere, wants to cross-check the references in a manuscript that go 30, 50, or more deep.  It is thankless work.  And many companies are using AI to do copyediting work, so those references won't get checked that way, either.  My new favorite phrase is, "human in the loop".  


On another note, I just spent a good bit of time discussing social media as a learning environment with my partner.  I think maybe we are cranky, Gen Xers here, but there is so much "negative" learning on social media.  I avoid a lot of spaces that give me that vibe, so perhaps I'm missing out on seeing the beauty amidst destruction.  I've personally learned a lot in many of the online spaces I'm in, but that is as a result of careful pruning and diligence at evaluating sources and information and fact-checking.   Most people aren't so careful and will believe whatever seems plausible.  Propaganda is so effective because it often effectively includes true things as well as false ones.  I'll have to look into how brains work (or not) to evaluate information when they encounter several things they know to be true in the midst of several things that they don't know, but perhaps assume are true in a sort of halo effect.  Or, if I know these things to be true, the other things must be true, too.  And then they don't check.  No question, it's a problem with AI and Social Media.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
Musings on the readings:  First, the concept of a network vs. a community.  At first, I initially thought they were largely interchangeable, but some key distinctions can be made after doing some basic research on this.  Communities are often more about caring and providing support.  They also likely involve more time to create and care for the connection within the community.  Often they are smaller.  Communities can link to networks, and people within a community can provide those connections.  Networks are more transactional in nature, and as a result, people can come and go, get what they need, make a contribution, and then disconnect.  A community suggests a longer-term presence.  Professionally, networks sound more appealing to me.  I'm happy to make contributions and gain knowledge from a network within my professional setting, but I'm less likely to want to join a "work community".  I'm involved in several communities person...
Read more

Week 1 Notebook

Image
General musings as I read:  Two readings so far, one from 2008, one from 2011.  Certainly, some foundational concepts here, but in some ways, this content seems quaint given the digital contexts in which most of us participate in our daily lives.  Even our phones tell us how much time we spend online and in communities in the Web 2.0 environment.  The Kietzman et al "Get Serious" article seems really out of date, even if foundational.  I just left an edtech where our marketing arm sucked up so many resources it seemed sometimes that the product development was a bit of an afterthought.  I don't think any executive now doesn't embed some deep strategy in their operations to engage with social media and marketing, to build market share, brand awareness, and get actionable customer feedback and analytics.  AI is definitely making this sort of community-building around a brand far more compelling with personalized interactions.  It is also interesting...
Read more

Crowdsourcing Latin American Politics timelines

As someone who used to publish course materials for Latin American Politics courses, I loved the article by Wilson (2018) where the class was assigned a long-term project over the semester to crowdsource timelines for Latin American countries.  One of the key course goals in that course was teaching about political development in general, and how it occurs specifically in different countries in that region.  This project reflected that key course goal in a really unique way.  I've done similar activities in this program where the class was asked to annotate a shared document, for instance, building out a complete conceptual map of a topic.  I didn't love the way we had to do that project, but as with the project in this article, it was a really interesting way to get people engaged with their learning.  What the project in this article it was how the researcher showed that the project itself led to far greater learning opportunities and outcomes for the students...
Read more