When will the feds regulate AI?

When will the feds regulate generative AI (Artificial Intelligence)?

NEW TORK TIMES - August 24, 2023 - Kevin Roose

In his recent column in the New York Times, Kevin Roose asked that question. He answered it in a very circuitous manner. Rather than actually predict a timeline he turned the question around and focused on what educators should do in the meantime.

He first made the point that we need to use generative AI as a tool rather than a way to catch students cheating and submitting unoriginal writing. The article further stated that if you are a teacher you have to assume that 100% of your students are using it to do assignments. He indicated that you also should create assignments that are specific and difficult to create using a chatbot.

He noted that there are dozens of new apps on the market that purport their apps can "catch" students who are using AI generate writing, but NYTs states that many still give false positives and/or if you are good at paraphrasing, avoid detection.

"It’s possible that in the future, A.I. companies may be able to label their models’ outputs to make them easier to spot — a practice known as “watermarking” — or that better A.I. detection tools may emerge. But for now, most A.I. text should be considered undetectable, and schools should spend their time (and technology budgets) elsewhere." (1)

He also noted that educators should talk openly in class about AI-generated summaries rather than denounce them. As this is truly here to stay and will be the way of the future students should be guided as to how to use the tool.

Roose said now that GPT-4 version has been released many of the past "fumbles" are being eradicated and the tool is getting better results. I recently put in a request for a case study that I give students in my "Management Information Systems" course and got a very accurate summary of the case study.

"Alex Kotran, the chief executive of the AI Education Project, a nonprofit that helps schools adopt A.I., told me that teachers needed to spend time using generative A.I. themselves to appreciate how useful it could be — and how quickly it was improving. (2)"

Kotran refers to lesson plans through a hyperlink in the article that can assist educators with the topic of AI-generated prose. And Roose concluded that students need guidance more than regulation.

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1 https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/24/technology/how-schools-can-survive-and-maybe-even-thrive-with-ai-this-fall.html

2 Ibid.