Florida Gulf Coast University\u2019s new Dendritic Institute is designed to bring artificial intelligence to students, staff and faculty. With AI\u2019s common use in all levels of education, ethical questions form as educators see outcomes, some negative, for students.<\/p>\n
To the institute\u2019s ethics specialist Chrissann Ruehle, the concerns have been clearly outlined.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to make sure that sensitive student information is handled securely and in compliance with regulations. Organizations need to clearly communicate about how AI is used,\u201d Ruehle said. \u201cAnother is academic integrity. Organizations need to make sure that the approach for managing AI supports the institution’s mission and values technology. Students still need to develop their critical thinking skills.\u201d<\/p>\n
Using applications like ChatGPT and Gemini, students can feed assignments into artificial intelligence, which can complete it for them. According to Ruehle, this can enable students and employees to not put thought behind their work and the results of the \u201cprompt,\u201d or input into the application. It becomes more complicated when AI \u201challucinates,\u201d or makes up, data and responses.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere have been some studies that have shown, potentially, that heavy use of AI can impact critical thinking skills. The idea being that people can become overly reliant on the AI,\u201d Ruehle said. \u201cIdeally, that person then must invest the additional time performing research on the results and maybe, in some cases, fixing whatever issues popped up with false data. We humans still need to use our human intelligence.\u201d<\/p>\n
To face the phenomenon of AI being used tofully complete work and assignments, Ruehle believes organizations need infrastructure around AI usage that goes beyond just creating policies. She says students should have an \u201cinternal barometer\u201d for deciding when to use AI, and that starts with K-12 education.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere needs to be policies and administration, but ethics don\u2019t stop there,\u201d Ruehle said. \u201cI think this all goes back to educating, informing, making sure that people have the right information about AI so that they can make ethical choices. With AI being so accessible outside the doors of the school, I think it’s going to be even more important for us to build that moral muscle, but we have a long way to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
A less considered ethical question is the environmental impact of AI. Data centers, which house computers that aid artificial intelligence applications, need to be built. The increased energy use from data centers burns fossil fuels and can harm communities, as shown by Elon Musk\u2019s Colossus in Memphis, Tennessee. Ruehle says southwest Florida is prime real estate for data centers, as it\u2019s a coastal community surrounded by water.<\/p>\n
Moving forward, a focus of the Dendritic Institute will be creating what Ruehle calls a responsible AI culture.<\/p>\n
\u201cAI is so pervasive. It\u2019s present. It\u2019s not going anywhere. Every organization needs to adopt it,\u201d Ruehle said. \u201cYou need to be very proactive in building a culture that\u2019s going to support the adoption of AI, but also maintain those ethics.\u201d<\/p>\n