There have been new developments in AI technology as well as the creation of new chatbots from two major technology corporations: BingAI by Microsoft and Bard by Google. Some people have opinions about the new technology, ranging from concern about job competition and academic dishonesty to optimism about AI’s potential to create groundbreaking new innovations. The Falcon Flyer asked some of the Fine Arts and Computer Science teachers and Mr. Thompson, one of the school’s librarians on their take on the new technology and have divided this article into individual fields.

Briar Woods Computer Science Teacher Alexander Baird explained the basics of AI technology by saying, “The concept of the technology behind artificial intelligence is to program feedback that creates a tailored response to questions in order to mimic a basic human response during a simple conversation and so far, that is all it can do. And when a person gives the chatbot a command, for example BingAI, the AI will act in three different ways: the direct response, the searched response, and the composed response. If you ask the bot for example ‘How was your day?’ it will respond with a direct response like ‘Good, how are you?’. If you ask the bot ‘What is the weather in London?’ it will give a searched response like ‘According to weather.com, it is cloudy with a 50% chance of rain.’ If I told the bot ‘write me a poem about the weather’ it would give me a composed response of a poem about weather.”

When asked if AI would annihilate humanity, Baird had this to say: ”First, it would have to achieve true AI sentience, and even then I don’t think the AI would be able to actually hack into anything without the help of people who have access to those systems, which probably would not happen.” so there are no worries.

There are varying opinions in the art industry about how AI art can take jobs. Denise Rosile, one of Briar Woods’ art teachers, has stated that with AI now generating art on command there would be more competition with human artists. “It would become more difficult for artists to sell their art at art shows when people can now just print it at home.”

However, Tim Willmot, Briar Woods’ drama and theater teacher, has said that AI can become revolutionary like “TV movies and green screens.” 

There are also questions about finding school  resources, but according to Briar Woods’ librarian, Matthew Thompson, “the AI uses a background search engine, it does not function as a physical library.” however Thompson did voice his concerns about the academic performance of students who are now becoming more and more dependent on AI. “We see students who use AI for their homework, and because of their growing reliance on it, when they take tests they do very poorly.”

Overall, depending on the use, AI can be a very useful tool or a dangerous device. However, one thing is for certain, an AI takeover is still just science fiction.