Alison Mitchell: Hello and welcome to Through Their Eyes, a podcast sharing the stories that shape perspective. I’m your host, Alison Mitchell, and today we’ll be diving into the different types of artificial intelligence, or AI, exploring how AI is being used in the real world, and discussing the advantages and challenges of AI.
Segment 1: Artificial intelligence can be classified into two main categories: narrow or weak AI and general or strong AI. Narrow AI is designed to perform specific tasks, such as image recognition, speech recognition, or language translation. These systems are trained to perform specific tasks and do not have the ability to perform tasks outside their programming. On the other hand, general AI is designed to perform any intellectual task that a human can do. This type of AI is still in its early stages of development, but it holds the potential to revolutionize many industries by mimicking human intelligence and decision-making processes.
Segment 2: AI is being used in a variety of industries today, from healthcare to finance to transportation. In healthcare, AI is being used to improve diagnoses, personalize treatments, and reduce the risk of medical errors. In finance, AI is being used to detect fraud, optimize trading strategies, and improve customer experiences. In transportation, AI is being used to optimize logistics, improve traffic flow, and enhance the safety of autonomous vehicles.
Segment 3: The pros of AI include increased efficiency, improved accuracy, and the ability to handle tasks that are too dangerous for humans to perform. However, there are also challenges to AI such as job loss, privacy concerns, and the potential for AI systems to be used for malicious purposes. It is important for society to carefully consider the impact of AI and implement measures to address these challenges.
Mitchell (cont): Okay, I’ve gotta break some news to you. The podcast segment you just listened to was actually written by AI, not by me. But, it’s pretty convincing, right? It sounds exactly like something one of the Rubiconline staff members would create. That’s the amazing and scary thing about programs like ChatGPT, which is the AI program I used to create that segment.

Gallery • 4 Photos

This is the ChatGPT main interface, which details its capabilities and limitations. It also provides a text box where users can type questions or requests.

ChatGPT is efficient, accurate, and can produce pretty convincing results. But to test how good ChatGPT really is, I decided to give SPA students a copy of the AI-generated segment you just listened to and see if they can guess who wrote it.
Mitchell (cont): Okay, name, grade, and pronouns, and then, who do you think wrote this podcast transcript?
Clare Kimmel: Okay, my name’s Clare Kimmel, grade 11, and she/her.
Evan McCarthy: I’m Evan McCarthy, I use he/him pronouns, and I’m a senior.
Kimmel: Um, so are these all from different people?
Mitchell: No, it’s all written by the same, like, entity.
Kimmel: Are they on the Rubicon? Can’t answer that question?
Mitchell: No, just guess.
Kimmel: Oh my god.
Mitchell: You can be creative with your answer too, it might not necessarily be a person.
Kimmel: Not a person? Oh my god, did AI write this?
Mitchell: Yes.
Kimmel: That is wild. Was it ChatGPT?
Mitchell: Yup.
Kimmel: Oh my god.
McCarthy: Um, honestly it’s kind of tough. There are some things that make me think that it was not written by a human, such as the formatting, like “Segment 1, Segment 2”. Also, just some of these phrasings here, like, I’ve just read some of your writing before and I don’t feel like you phrase things this way.
Mitchell: [laughs]
McCarthy: And then also like “the pros of AI include”, um, that’s just, not a way I think a Rubicon thing would be written.
Mitchell: Uh huh.
McCarthy: Um, I also totally don’t know. That’s the great thing about it is like, you don’t know.
Mitchell: So this was written by ChatGPT.
McCarthy: Yeah.
Mitchell: Do you think it was easy for you to figure out, or like, would this pass as like, student-written?
Kimmel: Definitely student-written, the first person who came to mind was Finn Sullivan.
Mitchell: [laughs]
Kimmel: Like he, I don’t know why, probably because I just saw him in the other room. But, no, this seems very much human. That’s, that’s unfortunate.
McCarthy: I mean really the formatting was the first thing, just glancing at it. I feel like the biggest reason that I thought that it could have not been is like, a human can try to write in that style. But you could modify this very slightly and it would be nearly impossible to tell.
Mitchell: Yeah.
McCarthy: Unless I had read a bunch of your other writing.
Mitchell: So do you think if a student turned this in for like a homework assignment, would they get a good grade?
Kimmel: Oh yeah, for sure.
McCarthy: Oh, this specifically?
Mitchell: Mhm.
McCarthy: No, I don’t really think so.
Mitchell: [laughs]
McCarthy: I feel like you could definitely, in other contexts, I think you totally could.
Mitchell: Mhm.
McCarthy: Um, I mean really I feel like you do, you do need, some manual, uh, modification, you need a little bit of touching it up.
Mitchell: So obviously you’ve heard of ChatGPT before.
Kimmel: I have.
Mitchell: Have you heard of people using it or like used it in one of your classes or just like…
Kimmel: Right, I’ve actually, I’ve never used it, but I know people are using it. I know the Peterson, um, [history] classes for their final paper they are turning in a ChatGPT version [of the essay] to make it so Dr. Peterson can like, check whether it’s valid or not. Uh, Mr. Loman is really into ChatGPT too, for his artist statements, I don’t know. But I know of kids like, checking ChatGPT, but no one’s ever told me that they’ve turned something in with ChatGPT.
McCarthy: Um, I’ve heard of it quite a bit, I’ve used it myself. I’ve uh- not for homework I’ve turned in.
Mitchel and McCarthy: [laugh]
McCarthy: I’m not academically dishonest here. But um, you know, it’s uh, I think it’s a really powerful tool, and I think tools like it can uh, have great potential to enhance human ability in the future.
Mitchell: Do you think that ChatGPT or other AI programs can be valuable resources for students or do you think that they’ll always end up being used for like, cheating or academic dishonesty?
Kimmel: I think probably just [for] like, cheating, but I think like, what the Peterson classes are doing to like, check if you’re cheating. Um, well I guess that would just be if you’re cheating in the first place, so I think mostly just for cheating. Um, but like if you don’t understand a concept, I think you could put it into ChatGPT and it would kind of, I don’t even know what ChatGPT does but I think that’s kind of the overview of [what it does]?
Mitchell: Yeah, yeah. [It] answers questions, prompts, that type of thing.
Kimmel: Yeah.
Mitchell: Yeah.
McCarthy: Absolutely, I think um, it kind of levels the playing field because there are a lot of people like, I mean I’m not going to call anyone out, but a lot of people with uh, very hands-on tutors, and um, things like that cost a lot of money, and this is a, [it] can at least be a similar thing without that same cost associated [with it].
Mitchell: ChatGPT is like a very accessible form of artificial intelligence, do you think that AI programs becoming more accessible is a good thing or a bad thing considering that they can be used for more than just schoolwork, like it can answer questions on a lot of things or do different tasks?
Kimmel: I, I don’t like it. I don’t like artificial intelligence, I think it’s scary. But I think a lot of it can be a good thing, especially how accessible it is, um, AI and stuff like this.
McCarthy: There’s like, there’s no way around it. It’s something you have to embrace and uh, move on with, whether it’s ChatGPT or other um, models that have been built. Uh, and it’s just, it’s going to be the future like um, it’s uh, something powerful that can be used to extend human written ability rather than replace it.
Mitchell: How do you think that the usage of artificial intelligence will change over the next five years, ten years, or like, throughout the course of our lives?
Kimmel: Um, I don’t think the robots are going to take over in our lives but I think they are going to take over just because they’re becoming so intelligent I think like, I sound like a, like a conspiracy theorist, but I think like, they’re going to learn how to like, build themselves and then we’re just done for, you know?
Mitchell: [laughs]
Kimmel: And then I think, but I don’t think that’s going to happen in the next five [to] ten years, I think in the next five [to] ten years, I think medical procedures are going to like, improve and become more technological. I also think there’s definitely going to be a like, fraud or scam or no, what’s it called? What was Watergate? What’s the word for that?
Mitchell and Kimmel: Scandal!
Kimmel: A scandal, of like AI being used like um, immorally.
McCarthy: I really feel like it’ll be a skill. Like right now like, I don’t know, writing is a skill, like there’ll be people who put on their resumes like, I’m really good at using this AI tool. And uh, it’ll be something that people look out for, like, how can we use this? Yeah.
Mitchell: Yeah. How do you think that like, any specific things that you’re like ‘oh I could see this industry maybe getting into AI’ or no?
McCarthy: I mean, that’s really hard to say. I don’t, I don’t have any specific things I’ve thought about. Like I guess I’ve more thought about where I wouldn’t want it to be used.
Mitchell: Yeah.
McCarthy: Like, in um, like more interpersonal aspects of like, healthcare and like, because I know there’s great value for it in healthcare in like the more um, objective parts of it, but uh, I can also see it being used in sort of, inhumane is the word that comes to mind, that’s not the correct word though. But um, sort of replacing or faking a, like a human touch to things.
Mitchell: Any other thoughts about AI just in general?
Kimmel: Not a fan of her.
Mitchell: [laughs]
Kimmel: That’s it, yeah.
McCarthy: I really feel like it should be used as a tool and [as] something that’s out there rather than trying to block it. Like, if it, if you can, you know, just say you’ve used it, like, it’s like any other resource. Like uh, I know some teachers at SPA are now having people like, handwrite all [of] their stuff in class and it’s like that’s uh, that’s not the way forward, I don’t think.
Mitchell: Once again, I’m your host Alison Mitchell. Thanks for listening to this episode of Through Their Eyes, a podcast about the stories that shape perspective. Make sure to listen to our four previous episodes, located in the podcast section of the Rubiconline, and stay tuned for next month’s episode.

Music Credits:
“Abstract Science” Coma Media (pixabay.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/