Julia Mills ’14
Q:
What should students be cautious about as they grow up with this developing technology?
JM: Younger people may not always have the fact-checking skills that using AI responsibly entails. I would be wary of accepting answers from AI systems without any follow-up research. Even the most sophisticated systems are ultimately built by humans and powered by human-made data, so there are errors, biases and gaps in information all over the place. I’d like students to feel empowered to look under the hood: learn where systems source their data, how mistaken results are addressed, etc. The more students understand about how the sausage is made, so to speak, the less they will uncritically accept bad results. Part and parcel to this is to not undercut their own education by relying on AI to take their classes for Photo by Yasmeen Anderson
but you have a piano or a laptop keyboard and some chords you really like. We can use AI in music to fill in the gaps of people’s skill sets to allow non-professionals to realize their creative visions. In my opinion, AI systems that use a “humans-in-theloop” approach are the best compromise between leveraging all that AI has to offer and not completely letting go of the reins.
Q:
What about the downsides?
Q:
build these new technologies is for
JM: Schools, especially K-12, should be
Q:
Do you think schools can use AI as a tool and asset, and do you think they should? incredibly cautious in allowing the use of AI on coursework. Heavy homework loads can easily lead students to want shortcuts, and as AI systems improve, it will get increasingly difficult to police their use. Rather than allowing its unsupervised use, I think generative AI could be used in classrooms for inspiration — using AI-generated images as the source material for a
the next generation to maintain some level of independence from them. Anything else students should know?
Watch this space! Things change quickly. When I first started working in music AI in 2018, most people’s reaction was, “Wait, what does that mean?” With the rise of popular systems like ChatGPT and DALL-E, suddenly the concept of applying AI to anything and everything is mainstream. I don’t think there is a lot to
JM: It is extremely important that we
collage project, for example.
don’t hurt other parts of the creative
I also think that introducing students
nology, but it’s equally important not
to AI tools in a supervised environment
to get caught up in the hype and lose
allows teachers to educate students
sight of what really matters: ethical
on the importance of media literacy,
data sourcing, keeping human cre-
how AI systems can contain biases,
ativity and knowledge in the system,
etc. Students will likely explore these
and ensuring equal access.
sector through developing new technologies. There are many ways to unethically source data for AI or deploy it in a way that replaces artists. Thoughtful legislation and enforcement are needed to establish where the line is. BandLab has pledged its support for the Human Artistry Campaign, which seeks to do just that, and I feel very fortunate to work somewhere that centers ethics in our AI development.
34
them. The only way to responsibly
LUMEN
I
SPRING 2024
new technologies outside of the classroom anyway, so getting ahead of the curve and educating them on ethics and implications is paramount.
be gained by being afraid of new tech-