(TNS) — Synthetic intelligence is forcing all types of difficult questions on faculties and lecturers: What are the implications of blindly trusting what AI tells us? What good — or hurt — may come from the huge knowledge assortment underlying the expertise?

And possibly most significantly: Can one thing we invented to higher our lives wind up hurting us as an alternative?

Although the expertise could also be comparatively new, many of those large questions aren’t. Actually, science fiction writers have probed them for many years, even centuries.

That makes science fiction a unprecedented device for serving to college students perceive AI and its potential influence on society, lecturers say.

Listed here are a few of the texts that educators — from pc science lecturers to English instructors — say they’ve discovered helpful in serving to college students grow to be AI literate. (For the document, one is a nonfiction memoir.)

‘AI 2041’ BY KAI FU-LEE AND CHEN QIUFAN

The ten quick tales on this e-book are set in numerous cities around the globe 20 years after the e-book’s 2021 publication — when most excessive schoolers might be of their 30s. Many characteristic teenage characters. After every story, there is a quick rationalization of the expertise it explores.

Trainer Take:

The authors paint an image of a “affordable future [with] AI. Like, in 20 years, like what would life be like with this factor?” mentioned Andrew Smith, who teaches pc science at Woodstock Excessive Faculty in Woodstock, Vt. The tales discover points corresponding to knowledge assortment, privateness, and the biases in society that may be amplified by AI-powered programs, all points that college students and educators are inspecting an increasing number of as using AI expands in Ok-12 schooling and throughout different sectors.

‘ALL SYSTEMS RED: MURDERBOT DIARIES’ BY MARTHA WELLS

This 2018 novella kicks off a best-selling collection that now consists of six different books. It tells the story of a violent, AI-powered android because it searches for which means and engages in relationships.

Trainer Take:

This novel is an effective way to discover the intersection of social-emotional studying and expertise, mentioned Nicholas Bousquet, who teaches pc science at Plainfield Excessive Faculty in Central Village, Conn.

“Wells imagines a anonymous, company-owned [robot] who’s wrestling with lots of the identical challenges going through younger adults in the present day, together with psychological well being, social anxiousness, morality and ethics in a company context, and the practically irresistible attract of display screen time to flee all of it,” he mentioned.

‘ENDER’S GAME’ BY ORSON SCOTT CARD

This 1985 novel, the beginning of a collection, explores youngsters’s distinctive and terrifying function in a world the place Earth has a conflict with an alien species — with clear parallels to the Chilly Struggle between america and the Soviet Union, which had the residents of each international locations seeing one another because the enemy.

Trainer Take:

The story, which takes place in a dystopian, morally grey world, is a good springboard for discussing ethics, mentioned Pam Amendola, an English instructor at Dawson County Excessive Faculty in Dawsonville, Ga. She has used the story to spark discussions on questions corresponding to: “What’s an ethical compass?”

She relates the societal upheaval within the story to technological change in society in the present day, led to partially by AI. That “creates a pause for them to have that introspective second and ask themselves, ‘is that this proper?’ That is what literature has achieved previously. It is supplied some extent of reflection for a lot of, many, many various matters.”

‘THE FIRST SALLY, OR TRURL’S ELECTRONIC BARD’ BY STANISLAW LEM

This quick story, printed in 1965, tells the story of an inventor who creates a technological “bard” that may be prompted to put in writing poems — greater than a half century earlier than ChatGPT was launched. It is price noting that Google named it is AI chatbot “Bard.”

Trainer Take:

Matt Johnson, who teaches physics and synthetic intelligence at Whitney Excessive Faculty in Southern California’s ABC Unified faculty district, mentioned he likes utilizing “quick tales, significantly these I can discover free of charge on-line—which are typically a bit older. I am an enormous fan of Isaac Asimov and Stanislaw Lem for these items as a result of they’re large on concepts, however they write with accessible language and construction.”

‘FOLDING BEIJING’ BY HAO JINGFANG

This Chinese language novelette, printed in 2012, takes place in a future Beijing that is grow to be vastly overcrowded. Many roles have been misplaced resulting from automation and bodily house is a premium. Decrease class individuals spend their days sleeping underground, solely awakening at night time to clear waste, a lot of it created by the expertise utilized by the higher courses.

Trainer Take:

The story explores each the bodily waste that AI merchandise create and appears at how the rise of automation may displace many staff.

That provides college students a glimpse into AI expertise’s potential environmental penalties, mentioned Jeremy Promote, an English instructor at Magnolia Excessive Faculty in California’s Anaheim Union Excessive Faculty district. “We have now all these cool devices and all this cool tech,” he mentioned. “However what is the real-world influence?”

‘FRANKENSTEIN’ BY MARY SHELLEY

Shelley began this novel when she was simply 18, not a lot older than most highschool college students. Printed in 1818, it is the story of a scientist who imbues life into non-living matter, with devastating penalties.

Trainer Take:

This Gothic traditional could seem a far cry from robots and huge language fashions, however its central themes are clearly related to the dialog on AI.

“I feel Frankenstein is a good place to begin,” mentioned Hale Durant, who labored as a highschool librarian earlier than turning into an implementation specialist at ai.EDU, a nonprofit that works to advertise AI literacy. “When people attempt to create one thing that’s clever, the clever factor usually would not behave the best way they anticipate it to.”

‘GIRL DECODED: A SCIENTIST’S QUEST TO RECLAIM OUR HUMANITY BY BRINGING EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE TO TECHNOLOGY’ BY RANA EL KALIOUBY

This 2020 memoir — which lecturers say reads like a novel — tells the story of el Kaliouby’s work on the Massachusetts Institute of Expertise, which targeted on getting machines to learn human feelings.

Trainer Take:

The e-book wrestles with what it is like “attempting to be a girl from the Center East breaking into tech,” mentioned Chad McGowan, who teaches pc science at Ashland Excessive Faculty in Ashland, Mass. “It’s positively very relatable for a few of my college students to only hear about that wrestle.”

The e-book additionally provides loads of fodder for McGowan’s college students to delve into a few of the large moral and governance questions surrounding AI — in addition to take into consideration what informs their very own ideas, McGowan mentioned.

‘VALEDICTORIAN’ BY N.Ok. JEMISON

This quick story, printed in 2012, tells the story of a teenage lady who’s a part of a society consisting of the final remaining people, in a world dominated by synthetic intelligence. Her success in class may lead her to be handed over to an AI-human hybrid system.

Trainer Take:

It is a “crowd favourite,” mentioned Bousquet. “‘Valedictorian’ poses essential questions on what teenage individuality, management, and resistance may appear like in a near-future dystopia dominated by intrusive expertise.”

Bousquet provides that LeVar Burton’s “excellent” studying of the story — accessible on Spotify — “is a superb [tool] for college kids working to shut literacy or studying gaps.”

©2024 Schooling Week (Bethesda, Md.). Distributed by Tribune Content material Company, LLC.