EP 28 - Spring 24 Check-in focusing on AI in Education: Navigating Ethics, Innovation, Academic Honesty, and the Human Presence online.

In this Spring 2024 check-in, John and Jason talk about AI-created voices, the importance of human presence in online education, the challenges of AI detection like Turnitin, and insights from their spring conferences and presentations. See complete notes and transcripts at www.onlinelearningpodcast.com

Join Our LinkedIn Group - *Online Learning Podcast (Also feel free to connect with John and Jason at LinkedIn too)*

Links and Resources:

• Eleven labs AI voice generation (on OpenAI)
• John's deck from his presentation at ASBMB - AI as an instructional designer and a tutor.
• The Ezra Klein Show - Interviewing Dario Amodei

Theme Music: Pumped by RoccoW is licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial License.

Transcript

We use a combination of computer-generated transcriptions and human editing. Please check with the recorded file before quoting anything. Please check with us if you have any questions or can help with any corrections!

False Start:

John Nash: Okay, we'll get AI to fix that.

Jason Johnston: You can maybe get AI to fix that.

Intro:

AI Speaker 1: Hi, I’m not John Nash and I’m not here with Jason Johnston.

AI Speaker 2: Hey, not-John. Hey, everyone. And this is Online Learning in the Second Half, the online learning podcast.

AI Speaker 1: Yeah, and we are doing this podcast to let you all in on a conversation we’ve been having about online education for the last few years.

Look, online learning has had its chance to be great and some of it is, but some of it isn’t. What are we going to do to get to the next stage, not-Jason?

AI Speaker 2: That’s a great question. How about we do a podcast and talk about it?

AI Speaker 1: That sounds great. What do you want to talk about today?

AI Speaker 2: I’ve got a big question for you not-John. Are you ready?

AI Speaker 1: Okay, shoot.

AI Speaker 2: If we carefully and lovingly create a script for an online learning video (or podcast) but then have AI-created voices read that script. Are we humanizing or de-humanizing online learning?

AI Speaker 1: I’m just a text-based large language model chat-bot and I don’t think I’m equipped to answer that question. Maybe we should bring in the real John and Jason? John? Jason? What do you think?

John Nash: I think it's a great question, real Jason.

Jason Johnston: Yeah, real John. It's it's good to see you in real Zoom. and that is a great question that this our chatbots pose for us today. And I think that yeah, I'm not, what do you have any initial responses to the question if we use AI tools to lovingly create our scripts for online videos or for podcasts, are we dehumanizing or are we, humanizing these experiences

John Nash: Well, it's a classic academic answer, isn't it? It depends.

Jason Johnston: Depends.

John Nash: But I think used exclusively, I think it does dehumanize. I think used judiciously and with an agenda to humanize, I think they could be helpful, but the jury's probably out because it's all context, isn't it?

Jason Johnston: Yeah, definitely context and it gets into some philosophical questions as well, when we talk about humanizing. There is the act, there is the perception, right? And so, this goes back to some of the things that are going on even with AI telehealth, and so on. Or AI therapy.

If the people don't know, does it matter? Does it feel human? Have they had the experience of being with a human, even though it wasn't a human? And then does it matter? I guess there's a ethical question about, It matters because we want to be transparent and we want to be honest with people and so on.

But if at the end of the day they feel like that they've been in a humanized situation and it gives them maybe a positive outcome for them.

John Nash: Yes. Yes. Yes. I think we discussed that last year a little bit. Yes. So essentially what we're saying is that if we fake them into feeling belonging, then that's okay.

Jason Johnston: yeah. As long as maybe we're not being dishonest with them. Or maybe not, I shouldn't say maybe. As long as we're not being dishonest with them. I think that would be the cutoff for me. If people knew what was going on.

John Nash: Okay. Fair. I think so. You say you're about to