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Artificial Intelligence in Academics

This guide is created for the FSCJ community, with resources and information about Artificial Intelligence that can help students, faculty, and the greater community.

  Artificial Intelligence

 

AI   is complicated to define. Vannevar Bush in 1945 defined it as “A system which amplifies people’s own knowledge and understanding.” You can read more on the definition of (AI) in this IBM article. 
 

ML is a subset of AI “Machine learning is the science of getting computers to act without being explicitly programmed.” – Andrew Ng

 

DL  is a subset of machine learning. It drives many artificial intelligence (AI) applications. This article explains the difference of AI, ML, and DL.

What is Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to the simulation of human intelligence and awareness in machines that are programmed to think, judge, respond, and mimic humans and their actions (Frakenfield, 2022). It is commonly used by people to describe any piece of technology that mimics human learning and problem solving skills.

Artificial intelligence is used across all industries and academic subjects. The term is used to describe a variety of functions, such as finding the best route on Apple and Google Maps, self-driving cars, algorithms to display a list in a certain order on a website or in a social media app, and facial recognition software to unlock a smart phone. It is part of our everyday lives, at work, in school and at home.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has taken the world by storm. AI tools, such as ChatGPT, can create content in response to prompts that you type in. ChatGPT can, for example, write a draft of an assignment for you, create works of visual art, write computer code, and much more. Because AI is so new and so powerful, colleges and universities like FSCJ are developing polices and guidelines having to do with AI and how students might be able to use it ethically and safely. 

AI example with Chatbots

Zhang, B. (2023).  A Friendly Introduction of Artificial Intelligence for Academic Library Settings. NEFLIN.org. https://neflin.org/2023-technology-conference/ 

How to Use this Guide

This guide has been created for students and instructors to explore how to responsibly and ethically use AI in their work. There is information about how to critically engage with AI tools, examples and further reading on how students and instructors can use AI tools in their work, as well as information about AI literacy, citing AI, and current AI news, such as ChatGPT and other tools.

As Eaton and Anselmo (2023) described, “If we think of artificial intelligence apps as another tool that students can use to ethically demonstrate their knowledge and learning, then we can emphasize learning as a process not a product.”

Background Information

These links are to resources that include background information, such as information about the companies that own popular AI tools, definitions of terms that are often spoken about alongside AI, and basic information on how to use generalized AI tools.