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Artificial Intelligence for Research and Teaching

Artificial Intelligence (AI) affects all areas of education, extending its impact beyond individual subjects. This guide is designed to assist you in utilizing AI for your research and teaching.

What is Generative AI?

According to IBM, “Generative AI refers to deep-learning models that can generate high-quality text, images, and other content based on the data they were trained on.”

Kate Soule, Sr. Manager at IBM Research, explains in her video, What are Generative AI models? that generative AI works by being “trained on a huge amount, in an unsupervised manner, of unstructured data … to create a new work that’s similar, but not identical to the original data.”

Artificial Intelligence: How Does It Work?

Duke University. (2021, April 13). Quick Learner: What Is Artificial Intelligence? [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/c0m6yaGlZh4?feature=shared

Two Views on the Virtues and Dangers of Artificial Intelligence

In an interview with Zoe Corbyn of The Guardian, ‘AI scientist Ray Kurzweil said, "The Singularity, which is a metaphor borrowed from physics, will occur when we merge our brain with the cloud. We’re going to be a combination of our natural intelligence and our cybernetic intelligence and it’s all going to be rolled into one. We are going to expand intelligence a millionfold by 2045 and it is going to deepen our awareness and consciousness." ’

Corbyn, Z. (2024, June 29). An interview with AI scientist, Ray Kurzweil. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/jun/29/ray-kurzweil-google-ai-the-singularity-is-nearer

Geoffrey Hinton, a recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics, was interviewed by Scott Pelley on 60 Minutes in 2023. Hinton, known as the godfather of AI said, ‘ "We're moving in a period when, for the first time ever, we may have things more intelligent than us." ’ Dr. Hinton worries that AI systems might be used to influence and manipulate individuals with harmful intentions and that they need “guardrails” to ensure that these systems do not.

60 Minutes. (2023, October 9). The Godfather of AI: Geoffrey Hinton. Interview with Scott Pelley. [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/qrvK_KuIeJk?feature=shared