AI in education: Friend or foe?

A message from Executive Dean of Education and Arts Professor Mary Ryan:

While Artificial Intelligence (AI) holds tremendous potential to enhance various aspects of human life, its deployment raises critical concerns regarding bias, privacy, and accountability.

Should we be wary, or should we embrace these changes?

On the one hand, by incorporating AI into learning environments, we can create a more inclusive, interactive, and effective learning environment, empowering our students to thrive in an ever-evolving world. Student support in academic writing conventions can be scaled like never before.

AI algorithms analyse vast amounts of data to adapt content to offer support in not only the teaching environment but also in research, with the possibility to translate high quality research into practice and create translation opportunities for our external partners.

On the other hand, we need to consider those questions around the prevalence of plausible misinformation, use of empathy to mislead, and perpetuation of inequality. We must keep ethics and human-centered design at the forefront of our interaction with these technologies.

As we plunge deeper in a world of big-data, humanities and arts can, and will, play a critical role in addressing these challenges. By engaging in meaningful and critical conversations about the societal impact of AI, we can continue to ensure that it serves humanity in a positive and responsible manner.

The intersection of AI, ethics, and the future is a complex and critical area of discussion and was amongst the many questions debated at the Faculty of Education and Arts “In Focus: Executive Dean Presents… AI, Ethics and the Future: Can the Arts and Humanities save us?' panel event last week at the North Sydney campus. The external panel included experts from diverse fields and was chaired by ACU Professor Joy Damousi to discuss the topic.

Teaching our students to think critically and act reflexively is crucial to a future that is firmly focused on the human person and our interactions with our environment. As educators, we have the responsibility to ensure that as AI technologies continue to evolve, they deliver the promise of making education more inclusive, effective, and accessible for all students in today's rapidly evolving teaching and research landscape.

If you were unable to attend the AI, ethics and the future: Can the Arts and Humanities save us? event, you can watch a recording below: