I read an article about a month ago that gave me pause. It was on Syracuse.com, and the headline was, “AI robot will give commencement speech at Upstate NY college.”
Wait, what?
Usually, colleges bring in distinguished alumni or celebrities or whoever to pontificate on what the future holds for the newly-indebted college graduates. However, at D’Youville University in Buffalo, a “social humanoid robot” named Sophia would be delivering words of wisdom.
The reasoning given is that colleges should be at the forefront of technology and innovation, and artificial intelligence represents that to a tee. My first reaction was to be aghast, but I thought I should check out how it went before passing judgment.
I found a video with snippets of the speech, which was more of an interview, led by a faculty member. Sophia just answered questions. It seemed very impersonal. Some of the time, Sophia would talk about not being able to experience things like humans do, and she cribbed from the thousands of graduation speeches she had access to via the internet. And why would you ask a robot where they can get the best wings in Buffalo?
According to a USA Today article, a number of students were not happy about how this was handled. They felt disrespected and thought of it as a gimmick. Some also made mention of the virtual graduations so many of them had in 2020 when the pandemic canceled high school graduation ceremonies; that was a time they were removed from human interaction, and this was a bitter reminder of that.
Is this where we’re headed with technology? It feels like the lazy way out of things. Writing a speech is hard. Trying to come up with something original and meaningful is harder. Yet, people have managed to do it for decades for graduations. Have we run out of ideas and/or initiative?
I busted three students this year for attempting to use AI for papers in my class. I overheard another student call out a classmate while reading their rough draft for the same thing. I’m sure the number is greater than mine at higher levels of school. It’s worrisome. Right now, the kids are just experimenting with it, seeing what they can get away with. But as the computers learn along the way, it might become even easier for the kids to cheat this way.
Here’s the thing, as I think about it. Artificial intelligence gleans information from online data and resources to come up with ideas. People came up with these ideas over time. If we just stop producing new ideas, how will AI advance? If we stop being creative, what will happen next? We’ll be subjected to YouTube videos of people doing dumb things instead of great entertainment in books, movies, and shows? That in itself is worth fighting against.
In some dystopian future stories where computers have taken hold of humanity, humans
are sometimes shown as just mindless, drooling idiots, watching mindl-numbing entertainment. There’s a time and a place for watching stupid pet tricks, but I need something to stimulate my mind and get me thinking about things. This is what I worry about even more than the computer overlords taking over the planet.
I can tell you this: The kids working on the graduation speeches at NRHEG have been toiling over this since they got nominated by their classmates. They’ve asked for some advice and inspiration. They really want to leave a resounding impact as they and their classmates exit the doors of the school for the last time as students and prepare for their place as adults in our world. Using AI to come up with a speech has not even entered their minds (I hope).
Go and read something created by ChatGTP some time. It feels so stilted when you read it. It has no human touch. Maybe that’s just the English teacher in me talking, a guy who’s read thousands of papers over the years. One of the things I grade my students’ writing on is voice. Does this sound like you? We all have our own styles of communicating our thoughts. Be yourself. Speak and write with your voice. Don’t be ashamed to be who you are.
That’s hard to do when you’re a robot that is programmed to be everyone and everything. I’m sure the AI robot at that university in Buffalo won’t be the last time we’ll hear about something like this.
I know there are good uses to AI. I listened to a podcast about how AI was used to decipher ancient markings on some papyrus scrolls that had been buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. If they were opened by humans, they would disintegrate. But a computer was able to scan through the outer covering, and AI was used to figure out the language. That’s pretty cool.
Hey, maybe they could use AI to provide answers for the upcoming Presidential debate in June! That might be more insightful, though less entertaining, than listening to two grown men, who are certainly old enough to know better, from yelling at each other.
Word of the Week: This week’s word is galvanic, which means energizing or shocking, as in, “The commencement speech from a robot was so galvanic that people left shaking their heads.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!