{"id":358,"date":"2024-05-05T21:56:18","date_gmt":"2024-05-06T04:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0275\/?p=358"},"modified":"2024-05-05T21:56:18","modified_gmt":"2024-05-06T04:56:18","slug":"blog-2-to-use-ai-agents-or-not-to-use-ai-agents-that-is-the-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0275\/blog-2-to-use-ai-agents-or-not-to-use-ai-agents-that-is-the-question\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog 2 – to use AI agents or not to use AI agents… that is the question."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Above image generated via Leonardo AI free public image generator using the prompt “artificial intelligence agent trying to use self awareness to make a decision in a learning environment”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This dive into AI agents being used in education has been eye opening, to say the least. My company makes little use of any artificial intelligence (AI) technology, in fact I can\u2019t think of any AI agents being used outside of the avatar in Zoom \u2013 and that is mainly used by folks in Zoom classes who want to look as though they are engaged in class without actually showing their faces. With so little exposure to the actuality of AI agents being used in education, my initial assumptions around the topic were all framed by what I read or saw in the media. That said, I was under the incorrect impression that all AI that is used is similar to the advanced technology from movies such as the newest Indiana Jones which de-aged Harrison Ford, or household AI such as Siri and Alexa who while lacking a physical presence have a far-reaching knowledge base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imagine my surprise when we start to dig into AI agents and education! First, it was a serious challenge to locate a course that included AI agents versus simply discussing the technology. I had anticipated a plethora of options in the MOOC and free online platforms and this was certainly not the case. It seems that AI agents are not as widely used or accepted as I had assumed. Naturally, I dug in to get a sense of why\u2026when for so many years I\u2019ve been hearing about this state of the art technology, why isn\u2019t it\u2019s use widespread as promised?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Belik and Neufeld (2022) speak about three significant challenges when it comes to machine learning (ML) – the machine\u2019s ability around generalization and how it\u2019s able to connect one experience to another and use that previous knowledge to understand new concepts, the challenge of creativity which they call innovativeness, and lastly consciousness (or the lack there of!) which indicates that a machine lacks the self awareness of a human when making choices or deciding between options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another hurdle that those looking to employ AI agents in education face is the \u2018uncanny valley\u2019 theory. I will be covering this in detail within an upcoming group presentation, but the high-level idea from Mori (1970) is that human\u2019s start with ambivalent feelings towards AI agents, and those feelings become more positive as the AI becomes more lifelike\u2026. up to a point. Once that point is reached, due to a general feeling of creepiness and unease there is a reverse effect where humans revert beyond the initial ambivalence into active dislike. If that point is crossed and uncanny valley is felt by the learner, it would create a separate and significant barrier to learning inherent to the tech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I\u2019m excited to continue to research the AI agent topics and learn from my cohort as we discuss AI in education, and look forward to hearing varying opinions and thoughts that surround the topic!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Belik, I., & Neufeld, D. (2022). Why isn\u2019t AI delivering?.\u00a0LSE Business Review<\/em>.Why isn\u2019t AI delivering? – LSE Research Online<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mori, M. (1970). The uncanny valley: the original essay by Masahiro Mori.\u00a0Ieee Spectrum<\/em>,\u00a06<\/em>, 1-6.The Uncanny Valley: The Original Essay by Masahiro Mori – IEEE Spectrum (purdue.edu)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Above image generated via Leonardo AI free public image generator using the prompt “artificial intelligence agent trying to use self awareness to make a decision in a learning environment” This dive into AI agents being used in education has been… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":292,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lrnt526"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0275\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0275\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0275\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0275\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0275\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0275\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":360,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0275\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358\/revisions\/360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0275\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0275\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0275\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}