Thoughts from James who recently held a Gen AI literacy workshop for older teenagers.
On risks:
One idea I had was to ask a generative model a question and fact check points in front of students, allowing them to see fact checking as part of the process. Upfront, it must be clear that while AI-generated text may be convincing, it may not be accurate.
On usage:
Generative text should not be positioned as, or used as, a tool to entirely replace tasks; that could disempower. Rather, it should be taught to be used as a creativity aid. Such a class should involve an exercise of making something.
I am a software engineer, I have literally forked tensorflow and modified the executor, and I have created neural networks for predicting aquaculture KPIs that have been deployed with great success.
I stopped looking for a year, and now I feel AI illiterate. (insert “too afraid to ask” meme)
My experience suggests it’s too early to start teaching people. Let the technology do its loop and settle down.
That’s an excellent point, thanks for sharing your insight!