Steve delves into the transformative impact of AI on education and the job market with Marit MacArthur, a writing lecturer and digital humanities researcher at the University of California Davis and Principal Investigator on a $1.5 million California Learning Lab grant on AI and Writing. AI is a tool that can democratize expertise and enhance learning, yet overreliance on it may hinder learning and even the cognitive development of future experts. We examine how to balance the integration of AI with the need to maintain and develop essential human skills, such as critical thinking, reading, and writing. As AI reshapes skill sets, are we becoming overly reliant on these technologies? Join us as we explore the addiction, the advantages, and the anxieties of relying on AI.
Marit and Steve discuss the pivotal role of writing skills and rhetorical awareness in effectively utilizing and advancing AI technology. Marit re-positions prompt engineering as prompt writing, prioritizing the importance of social and cultural awareness needed to intelligently prompt a chatbot.
Writing skills are crucial. AI training data relies heavily on high-quality content, and these tools degenerate when trained on their own output. Therefore, continuous creation of original text and code, not just AI-generated content, is essential for the ongoing development of AI. The ability to analyze a rhetorical situation, understand the audience and purpose, and consider the immediate context are all vital writing skills critical to effective use of today’s AI.
They discuss how individuals with expertise in humanities, such as history or English majors, are well equipped to prompt AI intelligently, which should level the playing field with those building or possessing computer science skills. Strong writing skills, critical thinking, and communication skills are considered essential for future-proofing oneself in an AI-driven world. AI can democratize access to expertise, but thoughtful implementation in education is necessary to avoid creating a generation of hazardously incompetent workers.
For a music clip from a recent mix-n-match session, I wanted to share a common example when a new song is brought to a group of people neither having played together before as a group, nor even knowing the song. (The first few seconds are silence…I call it the ‘substack header’). Players: Laurin Wilson lead vocalist, Jesse Hose on guitar, and Alan Wright on Bass.
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