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I’m skeptical, not afraid, of AI
Rethinking education and integrity in the age of Artificial Intelligence
So-called generative AI (gAI), also known as Large Language Models, has arrived on the stage with the debut of ChatGPT back on 30 November 2022 and is, very obviously, here to stay. The question is what to do about it. I cannot speak for the broad impact of AI across fields and in society at large. Probably nobody can, at this stage, and those who try are likely to be guessing or, worse, bullshitting. But I think I’m competent enough as a scholar, writer, and teacher, to make some hopefully sensible comments limited to those domains.
My academic colleagues seem, broadly speaking, to fall into two categories: the enthusiasts and the Luddites. The enthusiasts, as you might imagine, think that gAI is the best thing since sliced bread (which in itself isn’t that good of a thing, anyway) and that we should make every attempt to deeply integrate it in all aspects of our lives and jobs. The Luddites (named after 19th century anti-technologist Ned Ludd), don’t even want to hear the term AI. (To be fair, a probably larger number of colleagues is either entirely uninterested or doesn’t know what to make about all the fuss, waiting for it to settle down one way or another.)
I am most definitely not a Luddite. On the contrary, I’m usually an early adopter of new technology. Then again, I’m also aware of the fact that technology can be used for good or ill, and that even “obviously” good ideas can be turned into really awful ones (see social media, for example). And I’m already on record criticizing the current generation of AI, agreeing with some colleagues in philosophy who consider ChatGPT et similar to be sophisticated bullshit generators (in the technical term of the word “bullshit”). I also sympathize with Noam Chomsky’s notion that gAI is a massive engine for plagiarism.
All of that said, I use gAI on a regular basis. I’m enjoying the slow and careful deployment of Apple Intelligence on my iOS devices; I frequently use Midjourney to produce images that accompany my essays here on Substack; and I make moderate use of Claude to bounce off some ideas and help me track down some familiar references.
