There’s always something to learn…about everything, all the time, and A.I. is the latest thing we are expected to master. But how? Who has time? Do we just jump right in, or take our time? In either case, here are few things I’ve come across just in the past couple of weeks that have been helpful to me – someone who is only just beginning to stick their toes into the vast ocean of AI “stuff.”
What do college students need to know about AI?
Read the Student Guide to Artificial Intelligence by Elon Univ. and the AAC&U. It’s brief and to the point, which makes it very manageable for all types of learners. It has a CC BY license, which means you can use it all day long for your classes!
StudentguidetoAI.org (web version)
If you only have time to read one section of this guide…
The Essential AI “How-To” Manual should be required reading for all– students and instructors alike. There is a lot of good advice here on how to use generative AI for various things, but most importantly, it briefly outlines Generative AI Cautions – all from an academic perspective.
And on that note... if you don’t know how to fact-check, that is now an essential skill.
What is A.I. trained on?
This interactive article from The Washington Post helped me wrap my head around this in that it provides very concrete examples:
Inside the Secret List of Websites that Make AI like ChatGPT Sound Smart by Kevin Schaul, Szu Yu Chen, and Nitasha Tiku (April 2024).
How do I distinguish AI hype vs. what it can actually do?
Aspen Digital has launched an open educational resource (OER) designed to teach students (and the rest of us) how the media portrays AI-related technologies. There’s a detailed lesson plan along with educational primers:
This section on How to Talk About A.I. was very enlightening!
AI Snake Oil is an online newsletter (with a book on the way) by two Princeton guys who are passionate about debunking AI hype. They have a checklist of Eighteen Pitfalls to Beware of in AI Journalism.
What AI tools should I try first?
There are so many AI tools it’s hard to know where to start, but this librarian has decided to play around with these for right now:
Perplexity: Free tool that can be described as a cross between an internet search engine and generative AI. There is a pro version too, but the free version does plenty. It’s highly recommended by library-folk.
Semantic Scholar: Free, AI-driven search and discovery tools, and open resources for the global research community. It’s not for general searching, but if you create an account, you have some neat research tools.
MagicSchool – A high school teacher told me about this one and it’s great for all kinds of education things. You must have a .edu email to sign up, but it has a lot of built-in prompts that are specifically useful for teachers (K-12 and College) and students.
Copilot: PCC provides access to Copilot 365.
To use it… Open the Copilot homepage (https://copilot.microsoft.com).
Click "Sign In" and choose "school or work account."
Log in using your myPittCC credentials.
Important Info from PCC IT:
This version of Copilot DOES use your data to train the LLM for this tenant (and the OpenAI LLM too due to their business connections). So, if you log in and utilize Copilot AI, it should have access to the same data YOU have access to.
Why log in? Logging in with your PCC credentials gives you access to everything that comes with a paid subscription to ChatGPT4o (audio generators, visual generators, agents, etc.).
Well, that’s probably more than you wanted to know. I went on an AI bender earlier this year and created an Artificial Intelligence Library Guide, but things change so fast it could literally be updated every day of the week.
Have fun discovering new things! If you find something cool, let us know about it.
Angela Davis
Instruction & Web Services Librarian, PCC
Ok. Don't panic. Here’s a quick way to find an article on just about any topic, especially if you don’t have much time.
EBSCO, a publisher of many of our online library databases, has provided free access to several of their resources to NC LIVE libraries in order to support those who are on the ground and working toward recovery in the mountains of North Carolina. Simply click the links below to be routed to an EBSCO page providing access to each group of resources. No password or login is needed and access will be provided as long as necessary.
Clinical Resources
Evidence-based drug and disease information and expert guidance for trusted answers at the point of care.
Nursing skills and clinical resources for nurses and health professionals.
Evidence-based resources for diagnosis, treatment, and teaching of tropical and infectious diseases, epidemiology, and microbiology.
Disaster Recovery Resources
A full-text database covering all aspects of business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR), including risk evaluation, emergency preparedness and crisis communications.
A browsable DIY resource with full-text content from leading home improvement magazines and reference books, plus a collection of images not found anywhere else online.