Brian Green speaks on a faculty development panel on the topic of AI impact to the future of teaching, learning and knowledge production, along with Amy Lueck (English), Meg Gudgeirsson (History), and Eric Haynie (Religious Studies) Feb. 6, 2024.
The world of academia was forever changed with the public release of ChatGPT, and other generative AI-powered applications, in late 2022. The SCU community was no exception. Thrown into the deep end of uncharted ethical territory, SCU faculty and students alike were challenged on how to interact with or incorporate generative AI in their curricula. Over the past 15 months, the Ethics Center broadly, including Ann Skeet, senior director, leadership ethics, Brian Green,director, technology ethics, and Irina Raicu, director, internet ethics, have dedicated themselves to helping their community understand the ethical considerations and providing resources to approach this evolution in a principled manner.
In her recently published blog post, On Cura Personalis and Generative AI in Education, Director of Internet Ethics Irina Raicu discusses how navigating the use of generative AI has been a learning process for both students and faculty. She says that even after a year of being exposed to platforms like ChatGPT, “most of us are currently struggling to understand these new tools, to respond to student usage, and to determine whether/how to use them ourselves, both ethically and effectively. We are trying to convey to students what the limitations and usefulness of these tools are—even as we are still learning about them ourselves. We are engaging with students in conversations, as co-learners. In a way, this struggle to address the impact of AI in education might help students view their instructors as whole persons, too.”
Events such as presentations, panel discussions, and faculty group meetings have aided this learning process. Brian Green, director of technology ethics, has led many events like these. He has participated in or helped organize several Tech Ethics Faculty Group meetings about ChatGPT, two events on generative AI aimed primarily at students, and a faculty development lunch on ChatGPT and the teaching and learning environment. He also spoke to SCU's Board of Trustees on AI and ethics. Green co-hosted a panel for SCU Family Weekend 2024 on education’s relationship and his own experience with generative AI.
Senior Director of Leadership Ethics, Ann Skeet has also been actively engaging in campus events regarding AI. She was a panel member for a campus discussion of the book she co-authored, "Ethics in the Age of Disruptive Technologies: An Operational Roadmap" which offers guidance on how to responsibly design, develop, and deploy new technologies like AI. The panel discussed the book's development, including collaboration with Silicon Valley executives, people working at the Vatican, and local clergy. While the book was written for people in companies trying to develop and deploy technology ethically, the book has practical tools for people not working in companies as well, including a set of principles to guide the ethical development of new technologies.
When asked about the role that the Ethics Center played in helping the SCU community engage with ChatGPT and other generative AI resources in an ethical manner, Irina Raicu had a lot of experiences to share.
“Ethics center staff have organized and participated in a ever-growing number of campus events aimed at students as well as faculty and staff, and drafted articles, case studies, and other teaching materials aimed at clarifying what generative AI is and does, what its limitations are, what goes into building such AI tools, the various ethical issues that they raise, and where they should and should not be used. They have also addressed the ethical issues related to generative AI in courses that they teach or guest-teach in.”
Among these various events and activities is a case study, AI Writing Detectors, published by Raicu herself, an article by Ann Skeet on How to Responsibly and Reasonably Regulate AI, and a collaborative article by Brian Green, Ann Skeet, and Paul Tighe of the Vatican’s Dicastry of Culture and Education: AI Needs a Strong Code of Ethics to Keep its Dark Side From Overtaking Us. For a broader view of the ethical dilemmas associated with generative AI, the center published a series of articles in its Ethics Spotlight, Generative AI and Ethics.
As technology advances, our directors are doing their best to understand and relay best practices to ensure the best for the SCU community. At the Ethics Center, our vision is to empower people and organizations to make better decisions for a more caring world.
Image credits:
Top: Brian Green speaks on a faculty development panel on the topic of AI impact to the future of teaching, learning and knowledge production, along with Amy Lueck (English), Meg Gudgeirsson (History), and Eric Haynie (Religious Studies) Feb. 6, 2024.
Middle/Left: Hosted by the Bannan Center, this event, "What do Jesuit Values Have to do with Tech Companies?" held Dec. 6, 2023 featured panelists José Flahaux, adjunct professor, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at San Jose State University; Brian Green, director of technology ethics, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics; Fr. Brendan McGuire, pastor, St. Simon Parish in Los Altos; and Ann Skeet, senior director, leadership ethics, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.
Bottom/Right: 2023-24 Hackworth Fellow and SCU Senior Laura Clark with Brian Patrick Green, director, technology ethics hosting, "Are you Smarter Than ChatGPT?" for SCU students, faculty, and staff on Jan. 31, 2024 at SCU's Benson Center.
Mia Kanter ‘24, dance & french studies major and a marketing and communications intern at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics authored this story.