Assignment Task:
The research project for this semester will be centered around the how to best employs artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance individuals' lives and careers. AI is already transforming most fields in terms of both the work being done and also the job prospects that are available. There is an incredible amount of uncertainty in terms of what the future holds for individuals and society, as predictions vary from utopian abundance to the collapse of human civilization with credible arguments on each side. Certainly there are serious risks that must be considered.
We are not going to look at all of those here, as that might present an overwhelming task. Your job is to develop an argument for how AI should best be employed by each individual. Which specific cognitive functions should be outsourced to AI? Which ones shouldn't? What are the potential benefits of AI to individuals? What are the pitfalls? How should students and workers be trained to best take advantage of these benefits? Need Assignment Help?
There is important context here, which are the lessons from the social media era. First is how much social media (and related screen technologies) have changed our brains. This presents one of the most significant challenges for the current generation, as the very cognitive skills that social media has harmed the most are the same skills needed to succeed in the AI economy, creating a risk of increasing social inequality. How might this damage be avoided with AI? Adding to this is another important lesson: that our society and government has given almost incalculable social and political power to very few companies and their CEOs--individuals who have proven time and again to have very little concern for their users or society as a whole. It appears that the current administration has very little inclination to regulate AI companies, and in fact is actively seeking to stop anyone in the US (particularly states like California) from passing any legislation that might slow technological innovation. Giving unchecked power to AI innovators like OpenAI (makers of ChatGPT) has it's own serious risks, as doing so to companies like Meta, X, and Google has proven. I am bringing this up simply to emphasize that you must consider that AI companies will be releasing applications (and powering others) that can clearly have catastrophically negative effects on individuals and society as long as it is profitable for them.
One final point of reference to keep in mind throughout this semester--your research project should be focused on what individuals should do. What choices should they make about how to use AI? What training should they receive? What problems should they avoid? What information will they need to make wise decisions? These considerations will be vitally important for each of you as you complete your academic work and move into a quickly changing workforce and society.
Include at least one article or other source that isn't already listed here (you don't need an MLA citation--a link will do) so that other students can see useful information about your topic. The goal is to learn from each other while also defining your own ideas. As such, you should also be giving each other substantive help in your peer responses as you each begin your projects: share possible ideas to explore, ask questions that might be interesting to think about, or even suggest sources. Include at least 500 words in your original post and at least 100 words each in two peer responses. See rubric for points and expectations.