ETMOOC2 Session 1 Ponderings - Part Deux

NightCafe generated image of me in star trek setting
Another me in a Star Trek setting, by NightCafe

This is a continuation of my previous post from the other day. I didn't want to leave things in all negative terms, so here's part II with some thoughts on how AI might be used (or at least areas of AI that I am warming up on).  This isn't a posting about the current state of AI, but rather a 5 (or 10) year look out.  This is mostly inspired by a recent tweet by Tim Fawns, who asked folks to think not about the just present, but the near future.

So...with that in mind, here are some use-cases that I can think of (some of which have been borrowed and adapted from the first #etmooc session).

Use Case 1: Getting your biography starter pack from ChatGPT. 

I like writing.  I don't like writing about myself.  It feels very toot your own horn-like, and I've always never liked those people.  I acknowledge that to get ahead in life, and in academia, you have to do some of that self-promotion. Still, I don't like writing about myself. So, I can foresee using something like ChatGPT to give me an author biography for me, something that is between 200-300 words because I hate writing those.  I could feed it my academic CV, and it could trawl the internet to see what's been said about me (including LinkedIn testimonials), and it could produce something that I could use whenever I need a bio.  This is something that doesn't work well at present time.  I have asked ChatGPT to give me a bio and it just makes stuff up. I've asked it a few times over the last two months, and it still gets things wrong about me. Could I train it to have the correct info? Probably.  Do I want to? No!  The most recent wrongisms about me will be posted in Part III of Session 1 ponderings.

Use Case 2: Generating a character sheet for an RPG. 

I can foresee AI being used as a way to create a randomized character sheet though (or a character sheet based on a made-up bio from example 1). This kind of character sheet can be used in gaming, but it can also be used by students throughout the term if we want to make the classroom a kind of RPG experience.   Another use, blending use-case 1 and use-case 2 is the creation of a CCG (collectible card game) card with you as the character.  Think of this as a kind of playful business card.

Use Case 3: Using AI to change the format of a paper.

I usually write with APA in mind. Yes, I know that I can use a citation manager like zotero to update all my citations on the fly, but that doesn't account for other elements (like spacing, use of footnotes, making all footnotes endnotes, and vice versa, and so on).  Citation managers also ask you to do A LOT of work up front to make sure that your citation data isn't garbage, whether you end up using those sources or not. I could foresee a future where AI processors are "smart" enough to take a paper written in one format (APA, MLA, IEEE, ACM, etc) and convert the entirety of the paper into another format.

Use Case 4: De-escalating writing

We sometimes write emails when we're mad or upset.  It's usually not a good idea to send those. Maybe you need some time to cool down.  Perhaps a use of AI could be to put some of those emails in a penalty box for review after some time has passed.  GMail gives me nudges for follow-up emails, so why not a nudge to check to see if I really really really wanted to send that nastygram? Or, perhaps Grammarly (or ChatGPT) can help me rephrase it or edit it to make it sound more professional but still register one's discontent with the situation.



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