‘Adopting a critical stance’: Educators at Western launch project to get people talking about AI

Western’s generative AI challenge is attracting participants from around the globe, helping people understand AI’s impact. CTV London’s Bryan Bicknell reports.

It’s impacting our lives faster, and in more ways than we realize. Now researchers at Western University are hoping to de-mystify artificial intelligence, and how it fits into our digital worlds.

“If you’re using a Google search, if you’re watching a streaming service, it tells you what videos to watch, or what things you’ll like. If you’re using any sort of social media, those algorithms are sort of dictating whose posts you’ll see and do not see. If you’re online, it’s telling you which advertisements should show up if you previously searched for this thing,” explained Dani Dilkes. The E-learning and Curriculum Specialist at Western University’s Centre for Teaching and Learning, is one of the educators behind the Generative AI Challenge.

“So, generative AI is a subset of artificial intelligence, and it involves the generation of new content. So, you can generate text, videos, images,” explained Cortney Hanna-Benson, associate director, Centre for Teaching and Learning.

The project asks participants to take on a weekly AI challenge posted online. For instance, testing AI tools for bias and stereotypes, or a quiz gauging how people feel about AI.

“So it’s less about pushing them towards adoption, and more about adopting a critical stance of what using AI means, or what engaging with AI looks like,” said Hanna-Benson.

Each challenge shows how important it is to have some general knowledge of AI. That’s because so much of what AI generates is not necessarily truth or accurate, said Dilkes.

“And it does have a high error rate to produce what are called hallucinations, so incorrect information. Often it will reference resources that don’t actually exist. And that’s actually part of the point of the challenge. The reason it does that is how it understands knowledge. It’s not fact-checking. It doesn’t actually really understand what you’re asking. It’s basing its responses on probability,” she said.

The Generative AI challenge is eight weeks, and open to anyone.