Week 3 Reflection

What are some of the major limitations of GenAI?  

Professor Randy Labonte highlighted a major limitation of GenAI, which I think many people either choose to ignore, forget or are unaware of. That is, it does not always provide accurate information, though it comes across very convincingly. Honestly, I often don’t look deeper into what AI provides to me and whether the facts are true, the numbers are accurate, and the messages are reliable. As someone who doesn’t use AI often to source factual information, this hasn’t become an issue yet. However, the danger is still there, and people need to be aware that GenAI is not always reliable.

Another limitation of GenAI is that it takes away important skills, such as critical thinking, analysis, problem-solving, and basic research skills. Throughout my education, these were emphasized tremendously to be successful in my future career path and overall life. Now, thinking of students who grow up with GenAI, are they missing out on developing these valuable skills? Do they have the same resilience as someone who has not been exposed to GenAI? There is no doubt that GenAI has made our society more efficient, but at what cost? Has it shortened people’s attention span? I reflect on my research papers that would take me days to hunt down valuable articles, and now I can prompt AI to find exactly what I am looking for in less than five minutes. Do I still validate the articles? Yes, but I save so much time with the assistance of AI.

GenAI also lacks empathy. It is not a human that feels all the emotions and can build off its own experiences. So when people go to AI with serious concerns, it cannot support a person the way a human should. A couple of months ago, I read an interesting article that addresses this topic, “AI’s empathy gap: The risks of conversational Artificial Intelligence for young children’s well-being and key ethical considerations for early childhood education and care” by Nomisha Kurian. To briefly summarize, AI does not meet the needs that children require; therefore, putting their well-being and identity at risk.

Discuss how you have found GenAI useful or not for educational purposes.

In my opinion, there are two perspectives on GenAI used in education: as a student and as a teacher.

As a student, GenAI has been beneficial to my learning because it has:

• Created shortcuts in researching
• Introduced me to topics I am unfamiliar with
• Helped with brainstorming ideas
• Supplied summaries and simplified versions of long texts that I struggled to understand
• Creating layouts and organizing text structures
• Providing examples

As a teacher, GenAI has been useful with:

• Lesson and unit planning
• Creating adaptations and extensions for students
• Creating assessment tools
• Creating rubrics
• Providing examples
• Rewriting texts to be more age-appropriate
• Quickly supporting students with their inquiries that I am not familiar with
• Assisting students with technology difficulties

There are many benefits to using GenAI, and it is something that the education system will have to adapt to as it is growing fast and is unstoppable. To accommodate the use of AI in education, people must first be educated on its benefits, drawbacks and potential risks.