HWS News
22 October 2024 • Faculty • Research Gu and Zulkarnain Publish on AI in Higher Education
Media and Society faculty Jiangtao Harry Gu and Iskandar Zulkarnain both contributed to The Journal of Cinema and Media Studies with research on artificial intelligence and higher education.
Two professors from the Media and Society Department recently had their work published in the University of Michigan’s Journal of Cinema and Media Studies.
Assistant Professor of Media and Society Jiangtao Harry Gu’s ’13 article, “Teaching GPT Against the Given World,” explores growing tensions across the higher education landscape concerning the gap between students and faculty members on the appropriate usage of AI tools and the ethical challenges that large language models (LLMs) pose to critical thinking and discourse.
Gu examines the concept of the “given world,” warning that overreliance on AI could create a false understanding of certain knowledge as obvious or inherent.
In Gu’s “Information and Influence: Digital Media Literacies” class on campus, coursework includes a focus on the proliferation of dis-and-misinformation on social media, algorithmic biases, and the structures and effects of influencer culture. During the course, Gu introduces students to the history of AI technologies and technical AI concepts with philosophical implications and AI biases.
Gu says his goal is to impress on students that, “the real pleasure of learning comes from the sense of empowerment and liberation that become palpable only when they work together to dream other possible worlds.”
Assistant Professor of Media and Society Iskandar Zulkarnain is the coauthor of “Fostering AI Literacy in Higher Education: Integrating Generative AI and Social Annotation Tools for Critical Engagement” with Professor Suriati Abas of SUNY Oneonta. Their work highlights the importance of ongoing experimentation and refinement in AI literacy education, especially as AI technologies continue to evolve.
In Zulkarnain’s “Introduction to Media and Society” course at HWS, students analyze AI-generated essays to improve their ability to identify patterns generated by LLM tools and assess the accuracy and potential bias in AI-generated media.
