Generating Clarity on AI

The Promises and Pitfalls at MHCC

AI – artificial intelligence – is gradually shaping the way we interact with technology, from enhancing search engines to providing grammar suggestions in real time. Its uses are growing, especially now in education, where it offers new ways to support teaching and learning.

Curious about how AI is being used at MHCC, I reached out to instructors and advisors to learn more. My aim was to discover how AI is being implemented in our Mt. Hood classrooms, whether through lesson planning or student assessments, and to gather insights on its perceived value and potential drawbacks within our academic community.

While there are certainly positives, the topic of AI raised many concerns from our teaching staff about copyright issues, environmental impact, and effects on student development.

TWO-SIDED COIN

MHCC art instructor Matteo Neivert said one of the biggest issues is that “AI is using images from artists to make what it thinks is art, by using images of artists it finds online without those artists’ legal expressed consent.”

This concern is extremely relevant in today’s media-driven world. Over 58 AI copyright infringement cases have opened in the U.S. since the release of generative AI services such as ChatGPT and Copilot.

AI currently has a sizable, negative environmental footprint. One of our literature instructors, Holly DeGrow, noted how researchers estimate every AI prompt uses 16 ounces of water to process and almost 10 times as much power (electricity) as a basic Google search.

She raises a great point: AI in its current form is environmentally hazardous. The MHCC community takes its environment seriously, considering the beautiful 62-acre nature park next to our college. I don’t think we would want an AI data center next to our campus, sponging up our freshwater and emitting tons of carbon. AI needs to become more sustainable to be used ethically.

On the flip side, lesson planning can take weeks and even months for a college course. Using ChatGPT or MS Copilot or similar tools can speed this process and has helped one of our math teachers, Robert Hauss, come up with word problems.

A literature instructor, David Wright, let me know there are “loads of legitimate and useful ways this (AI) could be used in the classroom, from idea generation to creating an outline…”

While hopeful for all the positive possibilities of this tool, Wright also suspects that there “will continue to be students using it INSTEAD OF doing their own writing, developing their own ideas, or engaging with concepts and content,” he said.

POSING KEY QUESTIONS

The view of AI as a tool is still evolving, and instructors hope students will utilize it to better understand classes, and not to skip through them.

As an academic advisor, Layne Morell, said, “AI is here, and we will be using it in the future to assist with our work.” We need to prepare students for the future, not the past, he said.

One of MHCC’s art instructors, Edie Overturf, teaches a Digital Toolbox class that includes an assignment where students learn about how AI engines work, and the issues to keep in mind when using this technology. This assignment goes into the pitfalls of AI in the art world, and how to use generative tools. It also encourages students to discuss and decide their own answers

to ethical questions like, “What is ‘authorship’ and ‘image rights’ to AI art?” or “Are there ways that AI art and these generative tools can be used for good?”

It’s a great thought exercise for many people, regardless of if you’re into art or not.

While AI image generation can help in storyboarding or brainstorming, it often falls short in accurately replicating the little details of real life.

A veteran instructor and accomplished artist himself, Neivert mentioned that these AI-generated images have infiltrated image searches in Google and Yahoo. One of his students thought they found a photo reference for underwater fish in coral. “But upon closer inspection, the coral was made from repeating human hands, yikes!” Neivert recounted.

He told me why AI often makes these images: “GIGO – garbage in, and garbage out.” AI image generation combs through existing photos, drawings, and other media on the internet to spit out images, or “garbage.” These generation engines then splice previously AI generated “garbage” together.

“So, imagine a copy of an already imperfect reality and then copies of that… These images are then highly reductive,” Neivert said.

NOT-SO-QUICK ADOPTION

While MHCC has hosted training sessions with instructors and staff to help them better understand AI, some staff are choosing to avoid using AI because they prefer traditional methods of teaching or completing their work.

English instructor Don Anderson, told me he deliberately doesn’t use AI, even with its integration into predicting emails. He rarely takes its suggestions.

“I admit I’m old-fashioned and something of a curmudgeon,” Anderson conceded. [Personally, I was delighted to learn this word – thanks, Don!]

Instructors from MHCC’s hands-on tech programs, such as Automotive Tech and Machine Tool Tech, also said they don’t currently use AI in their classrooms or daily work. These programs might benefit from this technology in the future, but for now, it is not on their radar.

Already, however, some uses of AI can have stellar results. A Funeral Service instructor, Doug Ferrin, connected me with a student, Enjolic Anton, who designed their T-shirt last year using a Bing AI image generator. To generate images, people input written prompts for the AI to create or combine into any image.

“It took a handful of attempts to get what we wanted… The more detailed you are, the more accurate of an image is generated,” said Anton, who also made a funeral home logo design using this tool.

Many Mt. Hood instructors have a positive outlook for AI and believe we should learn to integrate it into our school. As Morell, told me, “AI is here, and we all will be using it in the future to assist with our work.” In the first days of (Microsoft) Excel, when advanced statistics could be done without a calculator, some teachers still required students to learn math on a calculator. That approach is, in a way, preparing students for the past and not the future,

To help eliminate the “garbage in” problem, a political science instructor, Janet Campbell, explained how students need to be coached on how to use prompts and to pull from academic research that is peer-reviewed and fact-checked.

In sum, AI technology has received a lot of hype, but many of us are concerned with ethical and educational use. Overall, teachers are worried about students not understanding the concepts and underlying principles taught in a class if they simply use AI to do the work for them. MHCC doesn’t offer a full course on artificial intelligence… yet. But as more and more people learn about this technology, it’s only a matter of time before we find sustainable ways to use it here at MHCC.

Zoe Griffin