Artificial Intelligence and You

This and all episodes at: https://aiandyou.net/ . We're continuing to focus on AI in education because it's so pivotal to the future of the human race. What's really going on in classrooms with AI right now? We are learning that from Gerry White, a teacher, technologist, writer, and lifelong learner who has spent two decades at the forefront of education and technology integration. Gerry is the Dean of Academic Technology at ECPI University in Virginia and the founder of MyTutorPlus, an AI-powered tutoring platform designed to personalize education for learners of all ages. From building over 70 apps to creating immersive AR and VR experiences, his work bridges the gap between the humanities and technology. His Substack articles and books unpack the ethical, emotional, and societal consequences of AI. We’re going to talk about how generative AI first showed up in Gerry’s classrooms, the importance of preserving students’ voices, confronting the cheating and plagiarism problems, optimal ways of engaging students’ use of AI, and finding the unique value of humans in the workplace, all in the context of real experiences in real classes. All this plus our usual look at today's AI headlines. Transcript and URLs referenced at HumanCusp Blog.        

This and all episodes at: https://aiandyou.net/ . Students using AI to cheat on homework - or being inaccurately flagged as cheating - falls under the heading of 'academic integrity,' so I am talking with Alyson King, Professor in Political Science at Ontario Tech University in Canada, and editor of the new book, “Artificial Intelligence, Pedagogy and Academic Integrity,” containing 12 contributors’ thoughts and research on the problem of maintaining academic integrity in a world where AI can complete virtually any school assignment at a passing grade or higher.  Alyson earned her PhD in the History of Education at the University of Toronto and currently she engages in research intended to better understand student experiences and academic integrity. In her teaching, she includes topics related to Indigenous experiences and worldviews, such as Residential Schools, and has designed a course about the politics of Indigenous Rights. We’re going to talk about teachers getting to know their students’ voices, AI detectors, and the place of AI in education. All this plus our usual look at today's AI headlines. Transcript and URLs referenced at HumanCusp Blog.        

This and all episodes at: https://aiandyou.net/ . Students using AI to cheat on homework - or being inaccurately flagged as cheating - falls under the heading of 'academic integrity,' so I am talking with Alyson King, Professor in Political Science at Ontario Tech University in Canada, and editor of the new book, “Artificial Intelligence, Pedagogy and Academic Integrity,” containing 12 contributors’ thoughts and research on the problem of maintaining academic integrity in a world where AI can complete virtually any school assignment at a passing grade or higher.  Alyson earned her PhD in the History of Education at the University of Toronto and currently she engages in research intended to better understand student experiences and academic integrity. In her teaching, she includes topics related to Indigenous experiences and worldviews, such as Residential Schools, and has designed a course about the politics of Indigenous Rights. We’re going to talk about plagiarism, AI-proofing assignments, motivating students, threats to critical thinking, and much more. All this plus our usual look at today's AI headlines. Transcript and URLs referenced at HumanCusp Blog.        

This and all episodes at: https://aiandyou.net/ . We are again focusing on AI in education, because that is really where the rubber meets the road for nearly every issue in AI and where we need to get it right, because that’s where we’re training the generation that will save the world. You could be very pessimistic about that, but you can also be very optimistic about that, and one person who is optimistic is Becky Keene, an educator, author, and speaker focused on innovative teaching and learning, and author of the new book, AI Optimism, about all the good possibilities of AI in education. She specializes in instructional coaching, game-based learning, and integrating AI into education to empower students as creators. We talk about the conflict between fear and hope about AI in education, changing our focus from product to process, how to reshape education to leverage AI, what role school leadership should play, and much more. All this plus our usual look at today's AI headlines. Transcript and URLs referenced at HumanCusp Blog.        

In this engaging discussion, Michael Gerlich, a thought leader focused on AI's societal impacts, dives into the repercussions of cognitive offloading on critical thinking. He highlights how younger users rely more on AI tools, potentially at the cost of their analytical abilities. Gerlich warns of the mediocrity trap in workplaces spurred by efficiency demands. He also emphasizes the urgent need for educational reforms and ongoing workforce training to adapt to an AI-driven future. This thought-provoking conversation challenges us to think critically about our reliance on technology.

Michael Gerlich, Head of the Center for Strategic Corporate Foresight and Sustainability, dives into the societal impacts of AI. He discusses how GenAI encourages cognitive offloading, especially among younger users, leading to reduced critical thinking. Gerlich draws intriguing comparisons between GenAI and traditional tools like calculators. He warns of the risk of losing individual voice and essential learning pathways, particularly in the workplace, while emphasizing that guided AI collaboration can enhance outcomes and critical thinking.

Carl Benedikt Frey, Associate Professor at the Oxford Internet Institute and director of the Future of Work Programme, discusses his timely new book, 'How Progress Ends.' He explores the critical role of technological exploration for long-term growth and why AI has yet to boost productivity significantly. Frey highlights the importance of decentralized innovation, competition, and antitrust measures. He emphasizes that universities must adapt to rapid changes in AI, and warns that progress is fragile, requiring proactive support to ensure it continues.

Carl Benedikt Frey, an Associate Professor at the Oxford Internet Institute and founder of the Future of Work Programme, explores themes from his book, How Progress Ends. He argues that progress depends on continuous institutional adaptation, debunks the myth of inevitable growth, and highlights how decentralized funding drives innovation. Frey also critiques the impacts of recent US policies on scientific research and compares the structural growth challenges faced by the US and China, warning of mutual dynamism decline.

This and all episodes at: https://aiandyou.net/ .     I'm talking with Megan Peters, who researches thinking about thinking, or metacognition. She is an Associate Professor in the UC Irvine Department of Cognitive Sciences, studying how the brain represents and uses uncertainty, focusing on how these abilities support metacognitive evaluations of the quality of our decisions. She’s a Fellow in the UCI Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, the UCI Center for Theoretical Behavioral Sciences, and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) Brain Mind & Consciousness program. She’s also President and Co-founder of Neuromatch, an educational platform serving over 30,000 students in over 120 countries across computational neurosciences, deep learning, computational climate science, and neuroAI. In our conclusion, we talk about Turing Tests, measuring the brain, the Haunted Mansion, some cool experiments on brains, and… cats. All this plus our usual look at today's AI headlines. Transcript and URLs referenced at HumanCusp Blog.            

This and all episodes at: https://aiandyou.net/ . Have you ever thought about thinking? That’s called metacognition, and Megan Peters thinks about that, a lot. She is an Associate Professor in the UC Irvine Department of Cognitive Sciences, researching how the brain represents and uses uncertainty, focusing on how these abilities support metacognitive evaluations of the quality of our decisions. She’s a Fellow in the UCI Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, the UCI Center for Theoretical Behavioral Sciences, and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) Brain Mind & Consciousness program. She’s also President and Co-founder of Neuromatch, an educational platform serving over 30,000 students in over 120 countries across computational neurosciences, deep learning, computational climate science, and neuroAI. We get really meta here: talking about thinking about thinking,  how we build models of the world, how language shapes our thinking, whether AI is doing metacognition in its chains of thought, statistical learning in AIs and humans, consciousness in humans and animals and AIs, and theories of consciousness. All this plus our usual look at today's AI headlines. Transcript and URLs referenced at HumanCusp Blog.