Generative AI and the future of the ICT field
The ICT field is developing at lightning speed, and the developments themselves affect the field. Thus, the snake bites its own tail again. For a long time, Artificial Intelligence was an abstract concept for many people. With the advent of ChatGPT, everyone is getting a taste of the impressive possibilities of AI. It also presents education with new challenges, because how do you still know if students have programmed something themselves? And is that question actually still relevant? A broad social debate is also flaring up, about the risks of AI. Moreover, AI is by no means green; it consumes a lot of energy and water.
The name generative AI (GAI) refers to AI systems that can create content automatically, at the request of a user. Since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, millions of users worldwide have been experimenting with this technology. The technology is already having an impact on society, and expectations of what it will bring to society are high. Building on their AI knowledge and products, since 2018, several technology giants have developed large language models, including OpenAI, Google, Meta, Microsoft in America and Baidu in China. They have created models not only focused on language, but also for other modalities, such as CodeX (OpenAI), protein structures (such as Deepmind's AlphaFold) and robotics (such as Google's PaLM-E). Because training those models requires a lot of computing power, hardware and data, large tech companies in particular have so far been able to train a language model. For instance, keeping ChatGPT on air costs an estimated US$700,000 per day. This kind of computing power also requires a lot of energy and water consumption.
The scientific literature lists dozens of tasks that GAI can perform in education, both for pupils and students, and for teachers. Examples include making summaries, writing study materials and timetabling. Furthermore, the systems can help with assessment. A chatbot can provide support to students as a real-time questioner, study buddy or source of ideas and suggestions. The performance of generative AI systems is such that they can pass various school subjects or university courses. ChatGPT, for instance, passed a law exam and a medicine exam. In summary, commonly mentioned opportunities for using generative AI in education are time-saving and efficient, higher quality of teaching material, better learning yield and promoting student motivation.
In research, GAI can help students and researchers with literature searches. Several scientific journals have already published articles in which ChatGPT has been co-authored. It is expected that GAI applications can lead to substantial increases in productivity and efficiency. Partners from our regions are more likely to turn to Fontys ICT for this.
The Rathenau Institute concluded in December 2023, based on a scan, that generative AI reinforces risks in the digital world, and creates new risks. A few examples: how will we soon be able to distinguish reality from AI-generated content? Also copyright, the question of whether all content may be made available to GAI's language models comes into play. Are texts allowed to be used or are they legally protected? Who oversees the use of generative AI and are new laws needed?
Sogeti's Johan Flikweert's lecture lists Gartner's Top Strategic Technology Trends in Software Engineering. They distinguish three fields: Developer Enablement, AI-augmented Software Engineering and Scaling Software Development. In doing so, Flikweert himself from Sogeti said he expected AI to play a bigger role in software engineering, and off-shoring to move more towards near-shoring, especially Portugal and Spain.
That ICT is developing rapidly, the flight of generative AI shows that well. Now AI is popular, but this will be another innovation in the future. Time for research and a good connection between that research and education are therefore important prerequisites to keep education current. When an innovation becomes more widely known, social concerns around safety, surveillance and ethics also increase. Do we adequately address society's criticisms or concerns? And are we making our students sufficiently aware of the sustainability aspects of ICT innovations? It may well be that students from Generation Z in particular find it interesting and meaningful to engage in debate with each other about, for example, the sustainability of ICT solutions.