Hi Lauren. I love the organized decision heuristic you present! Your example of the Amish makes me wonder what the role of community is in deciding when/if/how to use AI. For example, how can one weigh the effects of AI on things like trust (key to community)? Or, in an academic department, what effect does teaching students to use AI in a 200-level course have on how they learn when they get to a 400-level course? I’d be interested in thinking about these community effects (externalities?) that new technologies can have. One more thought - you are exactly right that it’s important to keep feedback loops open - soon enough, AI will be just another tool for learning (like calculators).
Thanks so much, Lynn! I have a more detailed post on that framework today, but I'm hoping to play with it in other contexts over the next couple weeks. Your question about the role of the community is really crucial too and not at all straightforward. Knowing when a decision is firmly individual and when it creates social externalities and when those social externalities are impactful enough to merit community input are all areas where individual and community values may or may not collide. Different cultures answer these questions differently, not to mention individuals, so there's an enormous amount of complexity in the decision landscape already.
In the case of AI in the classroom, we have some background principles (academic freedom, faculty governance, etc.) that help make the decision tree more clear, but even those can be contested in some ways. Lots to think about!
Hi Lauren. I love the organized decision heuristic you present! Your example of the Amish makes me wonder what the role of community is in deciding when/if/how to use AI. For example, how can one weigh the effects of AI on things like trust (key to community)? Or, in an academic department, what effect does teaching students to use AI in a 200-level course have on how they learn when they get to a 400-level course? I’d be interested in thinking about these community effects (externalities?) that new technologies can have. One more thought - you are exactly right that it’s important to keep feedback loops open - soon enough, AI will be just another tool for learning (like calculators).
Thanks so much, Lynn! I have a more detailed post on that framework today, but I'm hoping to play with it in other contexts over the next couple weeks. Your question about the role of the community is really crucial too and not at all straightforward. Knowing when a decision is firmly individual and when it creates social externalities and when those social externalities are impactful enough to merit community input are all areas where individual and community values may or may not collide. Different cultures answer these questions differently, not to mention individuals, so there's an enormous amount of complexity in the decision landscape already.
In the case of AI in the classroom, we have some background principles (academic freedom, faculty governance, etc.) that help make the decision tree more clear, but even those can be contested in some ways. Lots to think about!