About Madeline Askin

I’m Madeline Askin and I am a GHS senior in the new AI course. When not working on understanding the various concepts of AI, I love to participate in my many hobbies, including lacrosse, running, baking, reading, and volunteering with Geneva’s Green Club. I hope to expand on these hobbies while at Hobart and William Smith next year, where I will be studying chemistry while also playing division three women’s lacrosse. In the future, I would love to continue learning about AI and the way it can assist on my own career path, as well as in the world.

This week, our class focused mainly on understanding the key concepts of AI. While much of the past week was spent delving into intriguing essays regarding specific AI concepts, we also took the time to both analyze various AI pictures and take notes on key points of artificial intelligence. As it was our first week in the fresh AI course, understanding and acknowledging the core concepts was vital in order to set a good base for the rest of the semester.

As mentioned, we spent some time learning about the key ideas of artificial intelligence. Part of this meant understanding the spectrum of AI acceptance, from doomerism (AI will take over the world) to sycophancy (AI is the best thing to ever happen to the world). In order to truly grasp this concept, our class was split into groups where we shared perspectives about each of the five AI acceptance levels, allowing each student to grasp how other people view AI and why that is.

In addition, this week we read a few articles on various AI applications. When reading these articles, the previously mentioned AI acceptance spectrum was especially helpful, as it allowed students to find bias and possible hindrances within the readings. One article we read, for instance, seemed to take a partnership (the view where we should work with AI) approach, where it used AI to create a list of 22 new potential jobs that could be formed from the many applications of AI. My group and I presented about this for our first teaching presentation this week.

Another article about how AI could shape historians and their writing seemed to take more of a pessimistic view, as it pointed out that the work done by AI may be efficient, but it also could be false and seen as “cheating”. Other interesting articles brought up points about the philosophy and humanity of AI, as well as some of the unique ways people use AI, like for music making or for relationship guidance. These readings offered students a comprehensive understanding of artificial intelligence and the ways that it can be used, which is not only extremely beneficial for the course, but also for the life that we will lead once we leave the classroom.

Next, we participated in an activity where the students had to look at various photos and decide whether they were AI-generated or not. While this activity may sound simple on the base level, it actually proved quite difficult, with our accuracy averaging about fifty percent correct. The difficulty of the task led to some intriguing discussions, with questions regarding the trademarks and patterns of AI images. The activity also highlighted how AI images are becoming increasingly more difficult to pinpoint, emphasizing that in the future—or maybe even in the present—citizens could become incapable of seeing the true reality, impacting our perception and allowing for the potential of more corruption, especially in the political world. 

Ultimately, this week of lessons was spent attaining a solid base of knowledge for the rest of the course. Through articles, notes, and interactive activities, we were able to learn more about the way AI works and the impact that it may have on our very own future.