Keep the human in the loop

Oct. 16, 2024
Contact: Eric Stann, 573-882-3346, [email protected]
Photo by Sam Cox

Artificial intelligence (AI) has crept into nearly every facet of life as we know it. From Roomba vacuums that memorize their cleaning routes to websites that recommend your next purchase based on previous activity, the technology is abundant. For Jared Schroeder, a professor in the University of Missouri's School of Journalism, AI is the future. But that future, he says, may be complicated.

As a former journalist and scholar of freedom of expression and emerging technologies, Schroeder focuses on how AI will influence the flow of ideas in society. Specifically, his research examines how AI has challenged the way journalism is defined and what it means for the future of democracy.

Schroeder compares the advent of AI to the fictional innovations in the Jurassic Park film franchise that allowed scientists to re-create living dinosaurs without "really questioning whether they should've done that."

Where do ideas come from?

The world is filled to the brim with ideas and information. With AI, he says, those ideas could have new gatekeepers.

Because it's integrated into search engines, AI is increasingly being used by people to get information. But AI doesn't just dispense information; it also collects it from you with every question you ask. Those tools might then hand that information over to future questioners.

"We need to develop a literacy for processing information from AI," Schroeder said. "Because it has been trained, AI only knows what it's been told and what it's allowed to tell you - meaning it's limited. It's important to remember AI tools are owned by corporations that have a profit motive. Also, any information that is put into an AI system is no longer private. Never put private information, like student grades or personal communication, into an AI tool."

As the moving target that it is, AI is not only shaping the information it possesses, it's creating new information based on what it's learned.

"In the next five years, I think a large percentage of what we find on the internet will be AI-generated," Schroeder said. The economy of information will shift, he said, because AI tools will be so efficient that they'll be the only resource people will need to gather information.

"Because of this shift in the information ecosystem, it's important for people to keep on board a good deal of healthy skepticism," he said.

AI, students and the future

As a member of Mizzou's Provost Taskforce for AI, Schroeder believes it is inevitable that AI technology will change the way universities operate. To prepare students for an industry that's been infused with AI, Schroeder envisions the development of a new wave of scholarship designed to equip students with the AI skills they'll need to succeed in their careers.

"Preparing students would involve explaining the ways in which AI tools are trained, to help students understand the ethical and appropriate uses of tools that are yet to be developed," Schroeder said. "With guidelines allowing students to use AI on campus, Mizzou is committed to creating an ecosystem that favors students getting as much beneficial experience with these tools as possible before entering the workforce."

While AI tools can be helpful, Schroeder believes that it is important for educators to impress upon students that there's value in knowing how to do things - for example, write a good sentence - without the assistance of AI.

"Messages have meaning when they're written by humans," Schroeder said. "Although tools like customer service chatbots have revolutionized the way we do business, there's a fine line between using AI as a support tool and letting it take over your work."

Schroeder engages with AI scientifically, using it as an idea generator and a tool to challenge his own ideas while fostering new ones. He encourages people to use these tools to make their lives easier, but never to do their jobs.

"AI is like a tidal wave; it's coming whether we're ready for it or not," Schroeder said. "We have to start thinking about what kind of world do we want to live in alongside this technology, and how to keep our fellow humans in the loop."

Editor's note:

Looking for experts on AI? Mizzou has the experts you need.

Story written by Courtney Perrett

Missouri School of Journalism