Lindenwood professor urges AI literacy as tools grow
By Alex Gaul
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ST. CHARLES, Missouri (KMOV) — As artificial intelligence tools continue to grow in size, scope and computing power, local professors are doing what they can to improve the public’s understanding of AI.
Professor James Hutson heads up the Department of Art History and Visual Culture at Lindenwood University, inside the college of Arts and Humanities. More recently, Hutson has taken on the role of the university’s “AI czar.”
“Everyone was already using [artificial intelligence], and we were as well in education,” Hutson said. “It’s just that people weren’t aware of what they could do with it… We’re in adolescence in terms of generative AI. What comes next is interactive AI that is embedded in larger systems.”
Hutson says many of the systems already in place controlling traffic grids, retail inventory and even search engines already contain components of AI. Only recently has it entered the public conversation, mainly thanks to free online tools like ChatGPT.
These tools can be used by anyone to generate unique images, write essays and explain complex topics for someone at any education level. That freedom has raised safety and ethical concerns, like deepfakes or other material meant to manipulate people.
“People need to be educated or what it does, what it doesn’t do, what it means really now to be human and focusing on that,” Hutson said.
To that end, professors like Hutson who study AI are doing what they can to educate people on the current status of AI, which is evolving fast. Just a few months ago, Hutson says ChatGPT would make up its citations. Now, its citations are real. Hutson spoke last week to the St. Charles City Council, arguing AI isn’t something to be feared, but rather a tool that can help us.
“It’s the human behind it,” Hutson said. “It’s what humans are doing with it. It’s not making decisions on its own.”
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