- Artificial Intelligence is becoming more prevalent in our world, even on our phones.
- That accessibility can create concerns when it comes to deciphering the accuracy of the information its gives to users.
- Video shows MSU Assistant Professor Maria Molina talking through how the technology works, her students' experiences with it, and how to best consume the information it gives to users.
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
Artificial Intelligence is becoming more prevalent worldwide, and programs can even be accessed on your phone.
I'm your MSU Neighborhood Reporter Colin Jankowski. While it's clear AI isn't going away soon, I spoke with an expert in my neighborhood about how it impacts students.
"When we started to have it, not everyone had quick access to AI," Maria Molina said.
Maria Molina is an Assistant Professor at Michigan State.
"Now, it is accessible to all of us," she said.
That includes students like her own at MSU. She says while generative AI began with some concerns, the conversation is changing, and it's now being used as a tool—even in her own classroom.
"I'm teaching a special topics class," she said. "And so the aim of that class is to talk in lay language about what generative AI is and what are the benefits it has for society, but also what are the drawbacks that it has."
She says it's a misconception that generative AI is a magic machine capable of finding information, but it just doesn't work that way.
"It works through a certain procedure," Molina said. "So we have a set of data that we use to train these models. And then you get a particular output when you ask a question."
And when you ask for something complex?
"It's not going to be very accurate," she said.
But, Molina says that doesn't mean there aren't ways to use it accurately and become a more informed viewer of the news that's true, and the news that isn't.
"If you are going to use it as a search engine, use it in a way that you actually get the links, but check those sources," she said. "You have a nice snippet, but now go further and see whether that information is actually reliable or not."
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