Artificial Intelligence (AI) Basics
for Learning Coaches
What is A.I.?
In the most basic sense, A.I., or Artificial Intelligence, is programming that allows a computer to mimic human thinking, behavior, and problem-solving. This can take many forms whether it be text, human speech, or even artistic expression.
Used properly, AI can be a powerful aid to help students learn and educators teach. As with any tool, AI can be misused. When talking to your students regarding AI, it's important to impart guiding principals and responsible digital citizenship practices. It's also crucial to be aware of what your student is doing when online and completing work. Agora's Academic Dishonesty policy has been updated to include work completed by AI which the student attempts to submit as their own work. It's always a best practice to check with your teacher for ways in which AI is allowed to be used in class.
One final consideration is that most programs distributed by major organizations will have some safeguards such as age restrictions. Less reputable entities may not put these restrictions on and should be avoided for your student's safety.
Types of AI:
Conversational AI - This is a category of AI that you may already be familiar with. If you use assistive systems such as Alexa and Siri, you've had a conversation with this AI. While not as powerful as some other types of models, these systems have done a great deal to bring acceptance of digital assistants in the form of artificial intelligence, into the home.
Generative AI - This technology is specifically designed, and 'trained' to be able to create new content from a user prompt. This can include creating an essay or report to interpreting data or forming images. While these powerful tools are meant to enhance productivity, they raise ethics questions that have yet to be settled. These models may sometimes be referred to as 'Chatbots' and are what you're likely hearing about commonly in the news recently.
AI Systems to Know
Listed below are some common AI tools that you or your student may come across. Keep in mind that there are dozens (or even hundreds) more.
ChatGPT - generative AI program from OpenAI. Microsoft has invested a large stake in this company and uses this model for most of its AI endeavors. ChatGPT is the most popular and excels at generating text that mimics human language. It's model can engage in conversation meaning you can directly reply to provided responses. This gives the user the ability to ask follow up questions or ask the model to rephrase the response for understanding.
Dall-E - generative AI model that focuses on producing images from text input. Also from OpenAI. Powerful tool for creative types with plenty of safeguards to prevent inappropriate material from being generated.
Gemini - Google's 'multimodal' AI tool. This means it was trained on, and works with more than just text. When fully realized, Gemini promises to be able to perform a wide range of tasks from generating artwork to transcribing speech.
Copilot - Microsoft's native AI assistant. Meant to be a companion for existing products from Word to Windows. Previous iterations overlapped with Bing Chat which you may have used in the Edge browser. The model relies on OpenAI's models listed above to do most of the heavy lifting. Copilot has the advantage of offering these models for free(*) and being native in devices that run the Windows operating system.
Additional Resources
Comprehensive guide for parents from Internet Matters.
Parenting advice for the AI age from Thats-AI.