{"id":134765,"date":"2023-11-20T14:30:37","date_gmt":"2023-11-20T20:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=134765"},"modified":"2023-11-20T14:30:40","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T20:30:40","slug":"university-of-mississippi-writing-and-rhetoric-faculty-examines-ai-opportunities-challenges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/university-of-mississippi-writing-and-rhetoric-faculty-examines-ai-opportunities-challenges\/","title":{"rendered":"University of Mississippi Writing and Rhetoric Faculty Examines AI Opportunities, Challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Faculty encourage their peers to ‘Explore, don’t panic’<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When generative artificial intelligence first emerged, three faculty members in the Department of Writing and Rhetoric<\/strong> at the University of Mississippi<\/strong> were fascinated, intrigued, and concerned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I initially encountered it in April of 2022,” said Robert Cummings<\/strong>, associate professor of writing and rhetoric. “I saw a presentation by a team of researchers at Stanford who were going to try to envision what we’re living with now, which is word processors that are enabled with generative AI output.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Then I saw a book written entirely by generative AI. That was a wakeup call for me\u2014it was written in six hours and published on Amazon.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cummings, along with Marc Watkins<\/strong>, academic innovation fellow and lecturer in composition and rhetoric, and Stephen Monroe<\/strong>, chair and associate professor of writing and rhetoric, quickly realized the impact that this emerging technology would have on their field. Without hesitation, they began developing and fine-tuning strategies for colleagues and students to tackle this new writing landscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the launch of\u00a0ChatGPT<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0in late 2022, generative AI exploded onto the scene, taking over social media chatter, news articles and talk shows. The ability of the platform to automatically generate text based on prompts was unlike anything seen before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Educators are trying to keep up with this fast-paced technology as they learn to navigate issues surrounding tools such as ChatGPT in the classroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Generative AI presents numerous challenges, including plagiarism<\/a>, “hallucinations<\/a>” and data privacy. For higher education institutions, worries of cheating and diminishing critical thinking skills abound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There is a very treacherous path ahead filled with massive ethical issues,” Watkins said. “Tech companies are deploying these tools as quickly as they can without considering their potential use.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In August 2022, writing and rhetoric faculty members began testing AI-powered assistants in their first-year writing courses. This allowed them to build their knowledge base to assist others on campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monroe coined the department’s AI philosophy, “Explore, don’t panic.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Our faculty in the DWR are realistic and care first and foremost about our students,” Monroe said. “We decided to engage this new technology right away, even though many of us were worried about its disruptive power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“AI literacy is suddenly an essential skill, and I’m proud of our faculty for adapting so quickly.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cummings created the “DEER” approach to guide their work to build student assignments that utilize AI:<\/p>\n\n\n\n