CUWFA Conversation: Living and Working with Generative AI: Emerging Insights and Impacts

Description

Emerging from critical breakthroughs in the 2010s, generative AI represents a new species of AI, which traditionally is used to identify patterns and make predictions. Now emulating activities that have long been imagined as the exclusive work of humans, generative AI has provoked a great deal of speculation on what the future holds for this technology and its impact on our lives. Beyond chatbots, we now have access to tools that skip across all media formats with ease, are embedded throughout major digital work platforms, and can function as semi-autonomous agents that can control both hardware and software to execute tasks.

With this dizzying pace of development come many questions. How do we learn about and use generative AI skillfully and responsibly? What are the real impacts for our areas of work, beyond the hype and speculation? What does it mean to develop critical AI literacy regardless of how we end up using AI (or not) in our day-to-day lives? This session will address where we are now with generative AI, as well as emerging trends in where the tools and technologies are headed. Moreover, we will explore what it means to understand the technical, practical, ethical, and professional aspects of generative AI with illustrative use cases as well as practical guidance that participants can begin immediately to apply in their work and life.

Bio

Trey Conatser serves as assistant provost for teaching and learning at the University of Kentucky, where he directs the Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching and is an affiliate in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies. He has given over 100 presentations or workshops on generative AI and co-chaired the development of institutional guidelines for generative AI at UK. His recent courses have explored the origins, applications, and implications of generative AI from freshman to graduate seminars. He regularly contributes to media coverage of AI in education and holds a PhD in English from The Ohio State University.

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