AI Use and Tools
Before You Use: AI Pitfalls
Artificial Intelligence systems are new and exciting introductions to the technological and educational spheres, but it’s important to understand how they work in order to judge when and where they should be used, if at all. AI is not a catch-all – it can handle certain problems very efficiently, such as accessibility, and certain other problems clumsily, such as factual research.
All AI systems are just very sophisticated pattern-seekers, like all computer code before it, trained on vast swaths of text, audio, or image data to calculate their next move. This is the reason their introduction to medicine for things such as cancer detection is so exciting: their pattern-finding skills are unmatched! They can very effectively generate subtitles, erase background noise from recordings, or provide randomly generated ideas to spark an effective brainstorming session. All because many aspects of human behavior can be analyzed as patterns.
However, we run into problems when users, especially professors and students, are led to believe AI systems either know facts conclusively or can think for themselves and come up with answers in their own “brains”. They are not search engines, nor are they smart in the way that humans are, and can’t fact-check themselves or empathize with the user. Depending on what data the AI is being trained on, it can frequently be wrong and misleading. For example: many programs like ChatGPT are trained on public webpages like Wikipedia. If someone inputs an incorrect fact into the internet as a joke, generative text AI trained on public internet will learn it as if it were correct, and report back with the incorrect information. As another example, a lawyer asked ChatGPT to find relevant cases for the personal injury lawsuit he was preparing. When he got to court, it was discovered that ChatGPT made up every single one of the references by spitting out words it had calculated were relevant, causing a massive fraud case. He was not using an AI tool specific to scholarly resources, he was using one that generated text from internet datasets.
Always, always fact-check AI generated information on your own, and make sure the tool you’re using is the correct tool for the job!
We would encourage you to consider your own personal ethics when using AI as well. Many programs, such as Artbreeder and ChatGPT, cause an immense strain on the environment due to the amount of energy their servers use to generate answers, and it’s important to understand if the data they were trained on was obtained ethically. Many generative AI systems found online are trained on copyrighted works without the owner’s permission. We have attempted to be transparent in each tool’s description.
Appendix: AI Tools for ID
Below are several AI tools IDs may consider for various use cases. Due to the rapid evolution of AI technology, this list is a snapshot in time. Here we attempt to identify options that have obtained a stable market foothold or that are, at least, among the top options currently available in a relatively undeveloped space. Nearly all tools require payment, usually in the form of a monthly or annual subscription, to use all their features. Most also have a free option (often very limited). If the cost of a tool exceeds the price of a Spotify Family plan, we do not recommend it for educational use due to budget constraints.
To effectively use them in your course, you should become well-versed in their features, potential limitations, and challenges. Familiarize yourself with the software through hands-on practice to better support your students. Gathering feedback and conducting thorough testing will help ensure a smooth learning experience.
| Use Case | Recommended Tools | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| General Use AI and Chat | Many AI use cases can be handled quite well by the dominant chatbots on the market, as they are designed to perform a wide range of tasks beyond specific applications, such as understanding and generating human-like text, providing information, assisting with problem-solving, and creating content. | |
| Image Editing |
Adobe Photoshop Adobe Lightroom |
Image Editing Software enables users to enhance and modify images, offering functionalities like cutting, merging, and improving photo quality. These programs can be highly effective for various editing tasks but may come with a learning curve. In some, not all, programs, AI is included as a tool to help its functionalities become more efficient. |
| Video Editing |
Adobe Premiere Pro |
Video Editing Software allows users to edit and manipulate video footage, offering functionalities such as cutting, merging, and enhancing videos. GenAI adds features such as selective content removal, additional frame generation, audio enhancement, color adjustment, text-based timeline editing, and more. |
| Audio Production | Audio Production Software includes AI tools designed to edit and enhance audio recordings, allowing users to manipulate audio tracks by adjusting volume levels, removing background noise, adding effects, removing vocals, text to speech, track generation, and more. | |
| Search and Research | Search and Research programs are designed to streamline the process of finding relevant papers and articles for essays or research projects. They also use AI to deliver precise and relevant search results, making them more efficient than traditional search engines like Google Scholar. They (with some margin of error) are programmed to find and cite scholarly sources. Some (Consensus) focus on finding scholarly papers and synthesizing their information in response to a research question. Others (Research Rabbit and Connected Papers) focus on citation mapping and identifying the connections between papers, making it easier for researchers to find related papers. | |
| Data Analysis | Data Analysis programs assist in analyzing data, creating charts, Excel sheets, and visualizations to support academic and research projects and help users manage and interpret data efficiently. Orange Data Mining is a standout choice due to its no-cost access and extensive capabilities. Many AI and machine learning tools exist for data analysis that do not operate on a chat concept but are no less AI-driven. | |
| Accessibility |
Adobe Acrobat Most captioning services |
Accessibility tools have long relied on AI. They are designed to assist individuals with disabilities in accessing and using digital content. These tools can provide features such as captioning for videos, text-to-speech for documents, contrast adjustments, and image descriptions. Accessibility reporting tools use AI for color contrast checking, file and HTML checking, and more. Tools like Adobe Acrobat and Ally use AI for ocular character recognition (OCR) and document tagging, and are widely used at CIDI. While CIDI manages the implementation of accessibility tools, having a basic understanding of these programs can be useful for backup purposes. Ensuring all digital content is accessible to students with disabilities is essential, and familiarizing yourself with these tools can help support this goal. |
| Language Translation | Language translation programs utilize AI to convert text from one language to another, making them invaluable tools for accessibility and communication. These programs cater to various translation needs, from simple text conversion to more nuanced language understanding. | |
| Image Generation |
Adobe Firefly |
AI image generators create an image from a text prompt and, in some cases, permit limited modification of the generated image. Some (such as Dall-E) are built into general purpose chatbots. Other tools, such as Adobe Firefly and Getty Images, are safer for commercial use and follow more ethical practices of limiting their source training materials to stock, public domain, and openly-licensed content. |
| Collaboration/Social Learning | AI tools for discussion facilitation and social learning are limited at present. Collaboration and social learning programs are designed to enhance interaction and teamwork among students, as well as between students and instructors. These platforms create an interactive environment where students can engage with prompts and respond to each other, fostering a collaborative learning experience. Packback is one of the most commonly used. Additional tools are evolving in this space but are not yet major market competitors. | |
| Course Authoring | Course authoring programs are AI tools designed to assist educators in developing entire courses by automating various aspects of course creation. However, it's important to note that CIDI already provides comprehensive support for course design, including personalized assistance and bootcamps. GenAI course authoring tools, at present, tend to create page-turner instruction punctuated by multiple-choice comprehension checks, accompanied by imagery that is either AI-generated or user provided. Currently the interface elements of course authoring tools outpace the quality of the content generated, which usually leaves much to be desired for all but the most basic of topics. | |
| Lesson Plans/Activity Creation | General use chatbots are usually up to the task of creating a good lesson plan or activity, given the right sort of prompt. However, additional tools, such as those listed here, help streamline the creation process by offering features such as interactive content, multimedia integration, and activity templates. | |
| Coding | Although AI coding tools are not yet sophisticated enough to generate entire software applications, they can assist with small coding tasks and serve as a great tool for IDs with basic programming skills to do more than they would otherwise be able to accomplish. | |
| Marketing and Article Writing | IDs often need to manage campaigns to spread awareness and influence change. These tools assist users in generating compelling articles, blog posts, and promotional content. Canva is excellent for creating visually appealing marketing materials and articles with its diverse design templates. It provides an intuitive platform for both novice and experienced users. Canva can help IDs a great deal in areas where they are not necessarily highly trained. | |
| Educational Prompt Assistance | Educational Prompt Helpers are designed to assist educators and students in enhancing the learning process through interactive and engaging methods. Libraries of prompts that educators can use in standard chatbots are likely to continue to appear. Khan Academy is valuable for its learning and problem-solving capabilities, however, keep in mind that these AI tools can generate answers to homework questions. |
Tools to Avoid:
| Gemini | Hour One | Midjourney |
| Deep Brain AI | Getty Images | HeyGen |
| Runway | Powtoon | Synthesia |
| Mubert | Adobe Podcast | Scite |
| SunoAI | Perplexity | Murf |
| Julius | FeedbackFruits | ProWritingAid |
| Cognispark | Nolej.io | To Teach_ |
| Tabnine | Amazon Codewhisperer | Jasper |
| aiforeducation.io | Chatsonic |
Either because of their cost, lack of effectiveness, steep learning curve, or dataset challenges, we recommend not using these tools.