Neil Postman once noted that “Technological change is neither additive nor subtractive. It is ecological....It changes everything.” He also wrote, “Embedded in every technology is a powerful idea, sometimes hidden from view.” For example, there was a time when education didn't grade students. Postman noticed that the technology of assigning a grade implied an inherent ability to quantify human thought, regardless of whether that is true or not.

Lately, we have been hearing that AI and tools like ChatGPT are transformative and "inevitable." Are they? And if they are, what are the "ecological" changes they may portend and what do we, other agents in our ecological system of education, want to do about them?

This will be a very open (and gently moderated) discussion on AI for anyone interested. The goal is to surface issues beyond the quotidian ones (syllabus policy, plagiarism, etc.), to get at most that have already been considered. It will be led by Philosophy professor David Hildebrand, a member of the first iteration of the CLAS A.I. Ethics committee, who is developing CU Denver's first AI Ethics course (currently with EPCC) and has been writing and publishing on technology and A.I. for the past several years.

Questions to kick off the discussion include the following:

-What do you think A.I. means in your field?
-Is A.I. "transformative" or "inevitable"? What words would you pick to describe them?
-What implications do you think are overlooked by these technologies' boosters?
-What implications are overlooked by faculty, students, and administrators?
-What are the opportunities offered by A.I., in your view?
-What are the opportunity costs of using A.I. instead of other avenues to learning and discovery?
-Are there ethical dangers associated with AI as it relates to education?
-Does it matter who owns and profits from A.I.?

-The KEY QUESTION (in Dave's opinion): Do developments in A.I. challenge colleges to redefine or re-explain their mission as a university? What remains the un-duplicable "core" of college education left after AI propagates across its functions?

Depending on how this Zoom conversation goes, there may be additional conversations, perhaps on specific topics, with smaller groups.

Toward the end of the session, we will ask attendees for their ideas on future events related to faculty life & AI.

Faculty Conversation: "AI and the Future of Education: Transformative or Inevitable?"