Introduction

This week in class we talked a lot about the use of Generative artificial intelligence (gen AI). Throughout this class and the workbook we finished. I learned a lot about how generative AI tools can be used to do tasks such as lesson planning, worksheet creating, and assessment tool creation. It was really interesting to learn about all of this useful information however, I am still slightly skeptical. Through the use of Claude AI I found that it’s AI output was supper useful and thorough. However, I do believe that it was leaning towards the territory of AI slop. Although not completely useless it provided so much information that made it hard to narrow down and reprompt to make the AI output more succinct. Overall, I can see how generative AI tools can be useful to enhance lesson or unit plans. Ultimately, I believe that as a student teacher I still have a lot to learn and think it’s best to learn independently without generative AI supports.

Major Limitations of AI

I believe the biggest limitations of artificial intelligence (AI) are the due to its data dependence, the lack of understanding, and inability to replicate human interactions. AI is a computer system and Harvard scholar, Dustin Tingley does a really good job of explaining this further. Tingley has researched AI’s natural language processing and how it has evolved overtime.

I think this is really important to recognize, AI is a computer and its seemingly human interactions are all based on patterns and algorithms. AI is not legitimately able to comprehend or empathize with what users are asking it to do.

AI’s Place In Educational Contexts

Rebecca Nesson explains an exciting aspect of using generative AI in classrooms is that as an educator we can make the change we want to see. She continues to explain that if two students had access to ChatGPT, one is in your class, one is not. At the end of the semester there should be something different with the one student who took your class. Essentially, as educators, we need to teach students how to use AI from an educated lens. To me this means fully educating students on appropriate AI usage, all of the many limitations, safety concerns and ethical implications associated.

For example, an uncommon fact that some people don’t know or fully understand about AI, is that AI models use an alarming amount of water. They consume it in two ways: Scope-1 which uses an onsite server for cooling and Scope-2 which uses an offsite electrical generation for cooling (Ren, 2023)

An example of a data centre’s operational water usage: on-site scope-1 water for server cooling (via cooling towers in the example) and off-site scope-2 water usage for electricity generation.

Overall, despite generative AI having it’s benefits, like being able to complete simple specified tasks, such as coming up with unique games to play with children, or editing lesson plans. I am still concerned about the limitations, ethics and environmental concerns of generative AI as a whole.