Imagining the Digital Future Center

I have an essay entitled "The AI Bargain" in the just released Building a Human Resilience Infrastructure for the Age of AI report from the Imagining the Digital Future Center. I'm glad to be quoted in the executive summary, stressing the need for enhancing opportunities for civic discourse: “We need to maintain social practices that keep the space of moral reasons alive. We should be designing AI systems that show their work. We must create and advocate for more face-to-face human forums in addition to today’s classrooms, juries and community meetings. Automated recommendations should be treated as starting points rather than verdicts. And AI can also be designed and used to reinforce human deliberation.” You can read my whole essay in Chapter 9: Epistemic Vigilance: Discerning Truth, Illusion and Misinformation: https://lnkd.in/eP_gYn_R Thanks to Janna Quitney Anderson and Lee Rainie for compiling these perspectives.

🤔 New Report on Human Resilience in the AI Age (Elon University) I am always amazed by the extraordinary reports that Lee Rainie and Janna Quitney Anderson produce - comprehensive, thoughtful, balanced, but also purposeful The new report from Elon University Imagining the Digital Future Center - "Building a Human Resilience Infrastructure for the AI Age" - explores one of the biggest challenges ahead - coexisting with AI. The key finding - "humans need to build a highly coordinated resilience infrastructure for the AI Age to counterbalance the human and systemic challenges posed by widespread AI adoption. Some 82% of experts said AI will play a significantly larger role in shaping people’s lives and key societal functions in the next 10 years or less. They urged an 'institutions-first' resilience agenda because the most significant problems arise from a life-encircling AI infrastructure." In my remarks, I emphasized the need for red lines and contestability to ensure digital resilience. 👉🏽 “Prohibitions are not a sign of technological pessimism; they are a recognition that some harms are systemic and irreversible once entrenched. They are a necessary component of responsible AI governance, particularly where power asymmetries are extreme and affected individuals lack realistic avenues for resistance. 👉🏽 "An emphasis on contestability reflects a broader understanding of resilience as an institutional property, not just an individual skill. Individuals cannot realistically bear the burden of identifying bias, error, or misuse in complex systems on their own. Effective contestability requires collective mechanisms: courts, regulators, ombudspersons, and professional standards that recognize automated decision-making as a site of potential injustice.” Center for AI and Digital Policy Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies Merve Hickok Christabel R. Grace S. Thomson April Yoder, PhD Ren Bin Lee Dixon https://lnkd.in/e3ik5j3J

Here's the executive summary of our major new report, which includes passionate essays from more than 160 expert authors. See the full report at: https://lnkd.in/eSCXa_aY

College Faculty Fear Student Overreliance on AI and Diminished Critical Thinking Among Learners Who Use Generative AI Tools A November survey of 1,057 faculty nationwide by us and the @American Association of Colleges and Universities finds widespread concern and skepticism about how generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is affecting their teaching and student performance across academic disciplines. Large majorities warn that these tools will lead to student overreliance on AI, weaken their critical thinking, shorten their attention spans, and erode academic integrity and the value of college diplomas – concerns they say strike at the heart of higher education’s mission. At the same time, many think that teaching AI literacy is important, that their students’ future jobs will be seriously impacted by the spread of GenAI and that it is vital for those in higher education to stress the ethical, environmental, and social consequences of AI use. Key findings: ·        95% of the faculty in this survey said GenAI’s impact will be to increase students’ overreliance on these artificial intelligence tools, including 75% who said the tools will have a lot of impact. ·        90% said the use of GenAI will diminish students' critical thinking skills, including 66% who think GenAI will have a lot of impact. ·        83% said the use of GenAI will decrease student attention spans, including 62% who thought GenAI will have a lot of impact. ·        86% said they believe it is likely or extremely likely that the emergence of GenAI tools will impact the work and role of those who teach in higher education. ·        79% think the typical teaching model in their department will be affected by GenAI tools at least to some extent, including 43% who said they believe the impact will be significant. ·        78% said cheating on their campus has increased since GenAI tools have become widely available, including 57% who said it has increased a lot. And 73% said they have personally dealt with academic integrity issues involving their students’ use of GenAI. ·        48% said their students’ research has gotten worse because of GenAI, compared with 20% who said they believe it has gotten better.   ·        74% of these faculty said the use of GenAI tools will affect the integrity and value of academic degrees for the worse, including 36% who said the value of degrees will worsen a lot. Just 8% said GenAI’s impact will affect the value of degrees for the better. ·        63% said their schools’ graduates in spring 2025 were not very or not at all prepared to use GenAI in the world of work, compared with 37% who felt the graduates were very or somewhat prepared.   Survey link: https://lnkd.in/ePM5kAcD Maha Bali, Bonni Stachowiak, Michael Crow, Scott Pulsipher, Tom Andriola, Katie Drummond, Becky Frieden

We are joining with RTI International to host a conference on September 17: The Human Edge: Our Future with Artificial Intelligence. TO REGISTER to watch the webcast of the proceedings, please go to: https://lnkd.in/eVcchsCG The gathering will feature these keynotes and presentations: --James Boyle, William Neal Reynolds Professor of Law at Duke University and author of The Line: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Personhood, will offer insight on the legal and philosophical issues raised by intelligent agents. https://lnkd.in/e3Z6_tQN --Erich S. Huang, MD, PhD, head of Clinical Informatics at Verily (Google’s life sciences subsidiary) and Chief Science & Innovation Officer for Unduo/Verily, will discuss the latest trends in AI and healthcare innovations and how they will affect human well-being. --Beth Simone Noveck, Chief AI Strategist at the State of New Jersey and Professor at Northeastern University, will discuss the impact of AI on democracy and collective problem-solving. --Lee Rainie will represent Elon University's Imagining the Digital Future Center and report on a new survey covering public views about the impact of AI on key human capacities and attributes. This material will complement an extensive report from the Center on expert views about being human in the AI Age. https://lnkd.in/exkhe638 It's been great fun to work with RTI's Brian Southwell, Katie Bowler Young and Tim Gabel to plan this event and think about future activities on these issues. The conference will begin at 8:30 a.m. (EDT). And many thanks to Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Knight Foundation, Schmidt Sciences for their support.

Our Student Guide to Artificial Intelligence is being embraced by educators worldwide. We've just passed the 20,000 downloads mark, reaching students, faculty and staff at 3,700 colleges, universities and schools globally. This map shows locations of U.S. institutions where the Guide is in use. Get your FREE copy of this important resource: https://lnkd.in/e67GQ_3w

Already, more than 2,000 students, faculty and staff around the world have downloaded copies of the Student Guide to Artificial Intelligence. We're proud of this important resource for advancing AI literacy. Thanks to Elon University, American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and our endorsing organizations for their support! American Library Association, EDUCAUSE, NASPA - Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education, Online Learning Consortium and AMICAL Consortium

This is a terrific resource, especially for high school juniors and seniors (and those who teach and love them) and for college freshmen (and those who teach them and love them). It's clear-eyed, practical, full of context and insight about how to think about the world we're in and the world to come. I'm proud to have been part of the team that assembled it under the leadership of Elon University's Daniel J. Anderson, and to be associated with the impressive array of endorsers who believe it's worth reading and embracing.

Today we're excited to release the 2025 Student Guide to Artificial Intelligence. It's the second edition in our Student Guide series with deeper information that is vital for students navigating college in this age of AI. Thanks to our partner American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and our endorsers: American Library Association, EDUCAUSE, NASPA - Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education, Online Learning Consortium and AMICAL Consortium. Download the guide at: https://lnkd.in/g-Xqjqaf