Don't Fear the Robot - Presentation by Professor Phillip Dawson

Generative artificial intelligence is now capable of producing outputs that appear to satisfy some learning outcomes. A recent study claims to have been able to mostly pass the US Medical Licensing Exam using ChatGPT. Educators experimenting with these tools are finding that their assessments are vulnerable to ‘AIgerism’, or AI-assisted plagiarism. However, a cheating perspective is not the only way to consider the role of generative artificial intelligence in assessment. This presentation will consider generative artificial intelligence in the context of future-authentic assessment, a way of assessing that considers both current and future realities of a discipline. With tools like ChatGPT now a part of life, work and civic engagement, should capability with these tools be considered a learning outcome in and of itself? Can the challenge for educators change from “how do I ban or detect AIgerism, or design tasks that AI can’t do”, towards how to represent a world where these tools are normal? What might we learn from previous technology panics and a history of transitioning from worry about new technologies such as writing, calculators and the Internet, to embracing them and even incorporating them into learning outcomes?