At the annual faculty retreat in August, Dr. Benjamin Haywood, the Associate Director of the Faculty Development Center, informed faculty that the rise of generative AI like ChatGPT and Microsoft CoPilot is as inevitable as the internet.
Academic institutions across the country are hoping to find responsible and ethical ways to use the technology while it is still in its early stages. They are encouraging students to use it for assignments, and sometimes to build virtual teaching assistants, according to a 2022 Forbes article.
“I wanted faculty to feel like they were making informed decisions about how to use it (generative AI) and what policies to develop in their classroom,” Haywood said. “The reality is, it’s on the scene and it’s not going away, so how do we find ways to use it productively?”
Haywood proposed that faculty build AI-centered policies into their syllabi, outlining ethical uses for it within their classrooms. He lauded its value as a research tool or creative spark for the writing process.
“There are productive ways to use AI that can supplement learning, but doesn’t take the learning opportunity away from you,” Haywood said.
Dr. Darren Hick of the philosophy department has been in the spotlight on PBS, CNN and other news sources as one of the first Furman professors to catch a student using the then weeks-old Chat GPT to write a paper. In his class, AI is discussed rather than used, pointing to the ethical concerns around its usage.
“When I assign papers, I have a product that I can grade, but the point is not the product,” Hick said. “The point was the process of writing it. That’s the value of the Humanities, to struggle through that.”
Computer science professors Drs. Chris Alvin and Fahad Sultan have used their backgrounds in AI to develop ethical ways to apply it. Over the summer, they created a chatbot to act as a teacher’s assistant and academic adviser for students — an idea that spurred from the lack of teacher’s assistants in upper-level classes and large appointment backlogs for advisers. The bot was created in only a few months, and derives all information directly from Furman’s website and course catalogs, cutting out the risk of AI hallucination — the creation of fake sources by AI.
Since generative AI is a pattern-based entity, it carries its own implicit biases within the large language models it uses, according to IBM. This raises ethical questions around the use of AI beyond a certain point.
“It’s very hard to strike the balance where it’s useful and creative,” Sultan said. “Because it’s easy to put guardrails, but it very quickly gets to a point where it’s not useful at all.”
This phenomenon and other moral quandaries are the basis of the fledgling Digital Ethics Minor, with courses taught by Alvin and Hick, among others across disciplines such as Communication Studies and Business. The minor is composed of three elements: hands-on training in computing, a theoretical background in ethics and a culmination in a supervised research project. The faculty are forward-facing in their application of generative AI, and see the impact it will have on the professional world.
Another issue with implementing AI in classrooms is equitable access. “Until Furman is able to buy access licenses for all students, it’s an equity issue,” Writing Programs Director Dr. Magdelyn Helwig said. Paid versions of Microsoft CoPilot and ChatGPT review and cite sources when researching, but free versions do not. While some students may pay for more advanced models, others will use lower quality versions.
Haywood worked closely with Helwig to apply these ideas to the FYW (First-Year Writing) program. Helwig has implemented AI-focused assignments, instructing students to analyze what it generates.
“On their first paper, they were allowed to put a list into a large language model and ask it to help them see patterns or trends in that data,” Helwig said about her upper level classes. “They will probably be allowed to use it to generate a couple of different options for outlines for their paper and then to get feedback on what they might revise.”
Outside of the writing disciplines, the art history department’s Dr. Stephen Mandravelis has implemented Microsoft CoPilot into his introductory courses. Like Helwig, he has designed assignments for students to summarize concepts with AI, and then critique the generated responses.“If AI has made memorization and regurgitation irrelevant, let’s not lament that. Let’s instead say, okay, you can get that information, but do you actually understand what it means?” he said.
Communication studies professor Mary Sturgill encourages students to use AI to prepare for the increasingly decentralized journalistic world. She asks students to pose AI-related questions to the AI itself, and write about its responses.“Writing prompts is going to be a skill. It’s gonna be in demand because so many businesses are using AI,” Sturgill said. “I think it’s our job as educators to educate students on the perils of using AI, but also the benefits.”
On the other hand, religion department professor Dr. Bryan Bibb has adapted his curriculum to adjust for the downsides of generative AI rather than explore its advantages. He no longer assigns formal papers, instead opting for what he calls “daily, low-stakes writing.” These are non-graded assignments designed to eliminate the grade incentive to use generative AI.
“I’m trying to, rather than catch people, help them understand. What kind of writing habits do I need to cultivate that will help me be successful? That doesn’t involve using AI to compose things for you,” Bibb said.
As AI becomes increasingly integrated into classrooms, Haywood sees upholding equity and ethical use of AI as the most important goal.
“With any technology, from your iPhone to your computer to your smart thermostat, you can use it for good, or you can use it for ill,” Haywood said. “And my belief is, if we can help folks think about how to use it for good, then we’re all better off, right? The more we incorporate (AI) where appropriate into the classroom, the more it helps prepare our students for the future and careers.”
