Artificial Intelligence is on the rise in our society, and this includes education. In what ways do we use AI? Is it being used to replace our thinking, or to help bring our ideas to life? Personally, I struggle with some of the applications for AI usage. On the one hand, I have used it a lot in my work and think it’s a positive in terms of reducing my workload. I also enjoy using it for fun to generate custom images and music creation.  However, the idea of using it to write a blog like this one feels deeply uncomfortable to me. All of these are creative endeavors, but I have different feelings on them, which seems hypocritical.

The place I have landed is whether AI is being used for replacing or enabling human creativity. When AI does the thinking for you, it becomes less of a tool and more of a crutch. There are huge concerns in education now around student use of AI in that we fear they are not learning if they are engaging with AI. I will say that from personal use I have noticed that if you have a low level of understanding, you will struggle to use it in a meaningful way.

A friend of mine is an artist. When he uses AI to create images, they are often very detailed and exceptionally well done. By contrast, when I try, mine are not nearly as good and are a lot of trial and error. Unlike my friend, I don’t possess the artistic knowledge or language that he has to be able to craft a solid prompt to get what I want. Similarly, students who are using it to replace their thinking will struggle to produce much value or be able to critically evaluate what they are able to produce. 

To go back to my music and writing projects, I feel that with music, I don’t currently have the ability to produce music in the way I would like. I don’t have the band, the equipment or the full range of skills to create all of the kinds of songs that I envision. I can play guitar (though it’s been a while) and can sing, but I can’t play other instruments, nor do I have a band to do that for me. But, I can use AI to enable the ideas that I have to bring them forward because I do possess some of the knowledge that I need to craft prompts.

By contrast, when it comes to writing for blogs such as this where I want it to be my authentic voice, I do have all those abilities. I have not only the knowledge and language, but I can also take my ideas and turn them into a product through the tools available to me. I don’t want something that I say is me to be actually AI. I also don’t want it to be a participant in the relationships that I am trying to build with people.

That said, I still think AI can have a place here. For example, I think it’s fine for editing, or for exploring and unpacking ideas. With regard to editing, spell check is a tool that uses an algorithm to determine if I have made an error. The same is true for other word processing tools that have been around for years now (think of the Grammarly ads you often see on YouTube). So using it for the purpose of editing and reviewing is really only a more robust version of an application that has been around for ages. 

I also think it is fine for generic mass communication. If you are sending communication home on a school dance or about an outbreak of lice it’s fine to have AI generate something since that communication is fairly depersonalized anyhow.

I should note that when monetization enters the conversation, this tends to complicate matters much more. The music or images I mentioned could have been produced by an artist or band, and as such using AI could be seen as competition that is replacing the efforts of paid professionals. This is always a tricky thing to navigate since technology has often replaced traditional jobs. As an example, in the movie industry special effects teams have been largely replaced by CGI teams. While this has replaced one type of work for another, those that were replaced probably have some strong feelings about this new technology. 

Whether you choose to use AI or not, that will remain a personal choice. I will say that it is very much a function of our society now. Understanding how it operates is equally as important as deciding when and where to use it. Some of this may be a personal choice, though there is considerably less choice if you are exposed to it. Being transparent about what is AI and what is not is key to maintaining authenticity and credibility. AI is not going anywhere and is here to stay, the question that we need to answer is are we using it as a tool to enhance our creativity, or as a replacement for our thinking?