AI: Artificial Intelligence

While the name AI or Artificial Intelligence(AI) may bring to mind images of Sci-fi apocalypses or robot uprisings, the reality is much more mundane. To define it simply: AI is a way to train computers to carry out a range of complex tasks and to learn from these tasks. Computer processes called machine learning identify patterns in images, texts, and other materials. This process can involve human input or be fully automated.

Note: It is important to keep in mind that there is no rigorous definition of "Artificial Intelligence".  While Artificial intelligence has been around for decades, public understanding of it is can be shaped by fundamental misunderstanding on how AI works. It might help to think of these programs in terms of capability rather than Intelligence because:

• The phrasing is vague.
• It may come across as anthropomorphic.
• It implies consciousness/sentience.
• It may have moral connotations depending on the setting
• It can be generally confusing when discussing what AI is actually capable of.

While artificial intelligence has been around for decades, Generative AI(GenAI) has is a relatively new technology that has redefined multiple industries, fields of study and how we interact with the digital world in general.

GenAI is a specific kind of AI that is designed to generate new text, images, video, or audio based on the content that it has studied.

In order for the computer to generate new material, it needs to: 

1. Break large amounts of information into machine-readable chunks
2. Create a model to represent patterns in this information
3. Use this model to derive new works

When choosing and using AI tools, it's important to ask yourself some questions before you get started: 

• What are your own ethical boundaries for using AI tools? 
• Which tools would be most helpful during different steps in the research process? 
• Who developed or owns the AI tool? Do you trust them?
• What AI tools are others in your academic field or class using?
• Will you read the fine print before agreeing to the developer's terms and conditions?
• Do you know how to use the tools effectively? 
• Are you staying up to date with the tools, their capabilities, and their limitations? 

It might also be helpful to test your tasks on several AI tools, as they each offer different strengths and weaknesses.