Recent developments with the arrival of Google’s new ChatGPT competitor, Bard, has sparked a wide debate among universities and beyond. The new AI platform, which has the capacity to answer users’ questions using audio, video, and text formats, is set to become available to individuals in the US and the UK by March 21.
While the platform was intended to be helpful, conversations about its use have raised many questions about its potential for academic integrity violations. In response, Cornell professors and administrators have taken proactive steps to both incorporate and ethically assess conversational AI.
Senior Associate Dean of Communications, Sahara Byrne revealed that instructors are implementing projects intended to help students understand how artificial intelligence works in order to gain an advantage over it. She also shared a story of instructors who have pitted AI against personal grading of papers in order to compare the accuracy. While she acknowledges that students must be responsible when using these services, she also believes that Cornell’s faculty will easily become acclimated to the use of AI.
Computer Science professor Joe Halpern voiced a similarly positive sentiment, expressing that AI has its potential benefits, including opportunities to interact with language models such as ChatGPT in order to learn. However, he raised the important point that AI presents a “moving target”, as many long-term implications are yet to be discovered.
Cornell students also have differing opinion regarding AI, largely differing between seeing it as a beneficial tool or threat to their education. Information Science major Carol Roche is of the former opinion, pointing out that technology advancements have always been met with fear, but in the end, have often been beneficial. She believes Bard is no exception, and encouraged implementation of detection services for those that attempt to misuse the platform. Government major Varsha Gande, however, is more skeptical of the implications, worrying about the reliability of professionals trained through AI, and the potential of AI to replace essential roles.
Overall, the debate around the use of AI remains open, with many unanswered implications as the University seeks to understand how to best utilize this technology while safeguarding integrity and maintaining a quality learning experience.
Google is a tech giant, specializing in the development and deployment of cutting-edge solutions and services. They offer services like their market-leading search engine, operating system, cloud storage solutions, and communication services. Launched in 1998, Google has since become one of the most successful and influential tech corporations, and has been the forerunner of many new technologies.
Prof. Sahara Byrne is the senior associate dean of the department of Communications at Cornell University. She is an experienced academic administrator, lecturer, and researcher in the fields of media and communications. Prof. Byrne has been an active member of the Cornell faculty since 2008, as well as an advocate for ethical and creative use of AI in the classroom. In addition, she is currently the appointed Director of the Faculty Advisory Council for the College of Arts and Sciences.
