I've been actively involved in information technology and programming for decades, and I am now an educator in a Community College District teaching those subjects. And, I'm a professional actor and voice actor. All three of these areas are key areas that have already been directly impacted by generative Artificial Intelligence -- though this technology will impact every single one of us very soon.
It's an important and critical time.
I have some familiarity with Machine Learning, Training Datasets, Large Language Models, and Neural Networks through work with Python and its many libraries, and also in my own research and education. All of these are technologies that are part of what make generative AI possible. Click here for my first post, which is a great exploration of the underlying technologies that created ChatGPT.
As someone more familiar with the technology than most, I'm working with my campus' Academic Senate, our Distance Learning Committee, and our District, regarding policies and issues related to AI. I'm also a member of the American Federation of Teachers Union who are very concerned, supportive, and involved in supporting educators in these changes.
In my many roles, I've seen both positives and negatives of this technology. And many people, especially those promoting the technology for gain, gloss over some of the privacy, security, cultural, moral, ethical, bias, and other impacts that are currently inherent in AI; most of which have no real solutions yet. It's a technology that is having the largest Beta test in history that is and will be as impactful globally on a scale even greater than the Industrial Revolution. And, investment and development of the technology is rapidly accelerating.
AI and its surrounding history, applications, and issues have interest not only to academics and educators, but to our students as well. So, I've put together this blog to help everyone better understand the challenges and opportunities that we face.
I also work in entertainment arts and I know a great many creatives who are directly affected by AI: writers, artists, actors/voice actors, singers, musicians, and more. Many of us are already seeing the impacts of this technology -- often negatively -- in our pocketbooks. AI gained a great deal of press as a major issue in contract negotiations with the DGA, WGA, and SAG-AFTRA with AMPTP, as well as in class action suits brought by writers and artists against AI companies for using their protected works without permission or compensation as training data. Many artists and creators are not as tuned into the current state of the technology and how it might affect them.
For all of these reasons, I put together this blog, to be a repository and resource of shared information. I've gathered it together from my own explorations that will be of interest to all of those affected in the areas I mentioned.
Thus, the name for the blog, EdutainAI -- combining Education and Entertainment, two of my primary vocations.
I hope you find the information here helpful in formulating your own better understanding of this subject and how it may affect you and yours.
