To explore just how intelligent the latest “artificial intelligence” chatbots really are, a 博彩平台网址大全 faculty member challenged students in a new 1项 course to craft persuasive essays using only synthetically generated text.
This assignment was easier 说 than done—which is part of the lesson, according to 亚历克斯Helberg，客座助理教授 艾伦·K. 史密斯写作与修辞中心她教授“写作和人工智能”课程.”
“Large language models are essentially remix engines, just scraping and repackaging words they have seen elsewhere to try to sound like meaningful human 写作,赫尔伯格说. “的y don’t actually understand anything and can only produce variations of what humans have already produced.” Students needed to figure out what input to give the chatbots to get the desired output.
Before assigning students to create a “synthetic paper” during the intensive three-week J-Term course, 赫尔伯格首先讲授了人工智能的历史, 一直到OpenAI的ChatGPT等程序, 微软的副驾驶, 谷歌的吟游诗人, which have been making headlines in recent years while debates rage about the technology’s use in educational and professional settings.
的se programs can generate text that speaks generally yet vaguely about many things, Helberg说, but may not work as well when it comes to original, 基于本地的, 或者非常具体的话题. “的 paper’s theme was to argue for a change to the Trinity curriculum or campus that would significantly improve the student experience, but every piece of information in the paper has to be verifiably accurate,赫尔伯格说. “的 trick here is to strategically engineer input prompts so that your synthetic text technology is not generating misinformation.”
的 chatbot-written papers were accompanied by student-written journals containing the input prompts they provided and all generated output they used in the paper, plus reflection essays in which the students evaluated the process, 他们学到了什么, and whether they would use this technology in their own 写作.
Helberg developed this class following work he did with other faculty members and Trinity’s 教与学中心 on drafting syllabus policy statements about the use of AI in the classroom. “I wanted to look at the practice of how we integrate these technologies into our lives,赫尔伯格说. “的 course is meant to be both philosophically provocative and also demystifying. We’re trying to prompt big thoughts about what AI means for humanity, while also cutting through the noise of what people are saying about it and trying to find a more realistic perspective of what AI can actually do.”
安吉莉卡·帕拉，25岁, an anthropology and educational studies major from Queens, 纽约, 说 one of her favorite class exercises was about how to define intelligence. “We read about how we compare the human brain and memory to the way computers store and process data, but this analogy falls short and isn’t fully representative of the way our brains function,”她说。. “I was surprised to learn that the synthetic text-generators are not as ‘intelligent’ as the media hyped them up to be.”
一学分课程, which met for three hours a day every day during J-Term, also examined the various ethical and policy issues involved with 写作 and AI, 特别是在教育机构. “We looked at arguments people have made about what AI does and what it should and shouldn’t be used for, and assessed how we want AI to figure into our 写作 process, 如果我们想要的话. We covered a lot of ground in three weeks,赫尔伯格说.
While Helberg说 that synthetic text generators don’t represent the death-knell of 写作 as a human-centered endeavor, he added that the technology can be a helpful tool in some stages of the 写作 process. “I believe that synthetic text-generating AI is most useful for brainstorming, 作为创意的引擎. 例如, it could suggest different ways to approach 写作 an argumentative paper about a particular topic or expose students to the diverse array of choices you have as a writer,他说.
布莱恩·马丁25岁, 布鲁克林的, 纽约, who is majoring in anthropology and minoring in rhetoric, 写作, 以及媒体研究, 说, “I was under the impression that large language models like ChatGPT were producing content nearly indistinguishable from that of human writers. It’s both refreshing and reassuring to learn that it’s fairly simple to recognize the work of synthetic text generators. 这门课给了我宝贵的东西, hands-on experience with some of these models and has made it clear how I can use these tools to enhance my 写作 while allowing me to retain my voice and perspectives.”
卡姆·斯韦德勒，24岁, 主修古典学和修辞学, 写作, 辅修媒体研究, 康涅狄格, “与一些耸人听闻的观点相反, 我们并没有处在机器人末日的边缘. I believe all students and educators can benefit from AI, given that it is utilized as a tool rather than a solution.”
的 2024 j项 允许博彩平台网址大全的学生选修一门课程, 最多一个学分, 从1月2日到19日，为期三周, 2024. Students could choose from more than two dozen courses, 远程或亲自授课, including several offered at Trinity’s Rome campus.
