BYUH professors share their thoughts in AI and ChatGPT in a debate forum hosted by Economics club
The Economics Club provided an opportunity for students of any major to listen to BYU–Hawaii professors speak about the role of artificial intelligence and ChatGPT in university settings on March 21. The five professors on the panel shared a brief introduction at the beginning of the AI Debate Forum. Following this session, a panel discussion and a question and answer session were opened up to the audience which included 98 BYUH students.
Economics Club President Logan Taggart said he chose AI as a debate topic because it has been a regular discussion in his dorm and something he uses in his own life. Taggart, a senior majoring in business management and international peacebuilding from Colorado, shared about the AI Debate Forum, saying, “Students are actually interested in a debate and listening to the professors speaking [about] something outside their classroom.”
Elias Jessop, a junior majoring in TESOL from Utah, explained many of his friends who work in computer programming were self-taught through available resources outside of academic environment. While considering these experiences, he asked, “How do you imagine a university having to evolve and change to retain its value to students as a place where they can maintain a competitive edge in the workforce over people that are using these new forms of learning?”
Stephen Hancock, a professor in the Faculty of Arts & Letters, said Jessop’s question addressed a common problem that could happen as more people use AI to learn. He said everything will start to look the same because people are not producing something new. AI will block the creativity of the human being, he shared. “We need you to learn… in ways that give us something to go on… not just something to make us a little bit more money,” said Hancock.
Jeff Merrill, an associate professor in the Faculty of Arts & Letters, shared the importance of human connection, which he said AI will never realistically provide. He said, “There [are] very few universities that teach you to think critically about who you are in terms of eternal status and eternal identity.” He continued, “For me, [college] is really valuable in human interactions, what I learn from other people, what I saw other people create. It helped my creativity and my own thinking.”
The dean of the Faculty of Math & Computing and an associate professor, Aaron Curtis, explained how AI has done a great job answering questions for many of his academic courses. He said AI has existed for a long time and will replace humans if they want it to. He explained, “AI will surpass humans when humans relinquish that agency.” Curtis emphasized that if all students can do is perform at the same level as AI, then their employers will turn to the software instead of students as potentially employees. Students need to reflect on their value to an employer, Curtis said.
Troy Smith, a professor in the Faculty of Business & Government, said universities and students need to have good reasoning, logic and a better ethics class. He said, “This is a tool that can be used or abused. [People] do have ethical theories and understanding that we [should use to] think through how to use it.”
Gale Pooley, an associate professor in the Faculty of Business & Government, added, “We have to look at the trade-offs, the risk between the benefits and the cost of the choice.” Students have to ask themselves whether their choice to use AI will help them yield the highest benefits, he said.
Taggart said he hoped more professors will be open to discussion-based events in the future. He said the Economics Club sent more than 40 invitations to BYUH professors, but only five professors responded and became panel speakers. He said, “[Through this], I hope professors learn that their students want to learn from them if they are willing to come and speak.”