Seminar Oct24
Generative AI – is this education’s “tractor moment”?
Join us for this Education Lab seminar where Dr Malcolm Murray will be offering a series of lenses through which to consider AI, exploring the darker side of the technology as well as the affordances. The session will draw parallels with the impact of the agricultural revolution on farmers – will generative AI be similarly disruptive?
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Date: Friday 25th October
Time: 1-2pm
Location: Teaching and Learning Centre, Durham University
Title: Generative AI – is this education’s “tractor moment”?
Abstract: The seminar draws parallels with the impact of the agricultural revolution on farmers – will generative AI be similarly disruptive? Where should we position ourselves in this debate? Malcolm offers a series of lenses through which to consider AI, exploring the darker side of the technology as well as the affordances. How much energy and water does AI require? Are we creating new digital gatekeepers? Can we use tools that surface certain views and suppress others? Are we endorsing unethical practices? Using these lenses, we explore a series of case studies, which range from good places to bury a body, to writing modules on pornography and bomb-making. Along the way we can smile at some smoking guns showing generative AI use in publications, explore our own biases and finally turn the spotlight onto ourselves, and ask whether this is a problem of our own making?
Biography: Originally a biogeographer, Malcolm left the mangrove swamps of Belize for the delights of Durham. He is the Head of Digital Learning and leads DCAD’s Digital Learning Team. He co-authored the University’s original response to generative AI and has led numerous workshops and spoken at away days on the topic around the University. He was the lead author on our Student Guide to AI. He was recently invited to become a member of Anthology’s AI Advisory Council.
For more information, please contact helen.cramman@durham.ac.uk