CLA Voices on AI
Artificial intelligence raises profound questions about what it means to be human. In CLA, faculty from across disciplines are engaging AI as a tool and as a phenomenon that intersects with ethics, creativity, society, and identity.
Their perspectives highlight how the liberal arts uniquely prepare us to navigate both the promise and the uncertainty of this technological shift.
AI raises ethical, cultural, and human questions that CLA is uniquely positioned to address.
“Addressing AI’s broader implications goes beyond the purview of departments dedicated solely to the technological development of AI. The liberal arts play a critical role in fostering a deep understanding of AI’s societal impacts, by engaging with the ethical, philosophical, and cultural questions AI raises.”
“In CLA, we have core competencies that center the human experience and that are woven into our curriculum; many of these competencies apply to Generative AI, such as analytical and critical thinking, digital literacy, oral and written communication, ethical reasoning and decision making, and applied problem solving. Bringing a humanistic and critical framework to Generative AI is really important, and that's where the liberal arts intersect and matter as we use these tools.”
“In CLA, we think critically about the broader context of AI. Its data centers and processors have a huge carbon imprint. AI is being used to advance weaponry and military applications in ways that run contrary to our values. AI is also being pushed by private companies who have appropriated human intellectual property for profit. As a result, AI is likely to automate some of the more boring, entry level corporate jobs. This, however, may be an opportunity—because what students learn in CLA can't simply be automated. Our students learn to think and to live as globally aware, socially engaged human beings. And we know the need for these types of students is not going anywhere.”
Faculty are energized by AI’s possibilities, but also wary of its pitfalls.
“While it’s important to embrace AI with a certain level of skepticism and provide historical context in our instruction and research, AI interfaces will inevitably transform all sectors of society and aspects of our lives. This will leave universities like us with the responsibility to contribute to the ethical and social development of these products.”
“My feelings about AI are not purely enthusiastic. I am also anxious about its implications for the profession. The effects of AI on strategic communication are not yet well understood, and the technology has the potential to create new forms of digital inequality among stakeholder groups and organizations. These detrimental outcomes are underexplored, yet we are deploying AI rapidly within our field. This tension between AI’s promise and its risks is something that weighs heavily on my mind.”
AI is requiring educators and students alike to rethink what learning, writing, and creativity mean.
“Many students commented that ChatGPT is a great starting tool for their work but that it cannot substitute for human writing. In addition, many students raised ethical questions about whether or not it was OK to use ChatGPT for academic homework; most responded that they would hesitate to use ChatGPT in that way and were uncertain how these texts would be received. The results of this study showed a complex picture of ChatGPT and also demonstrated the value of the liberal arts for Generative AI: it is important to raise questions about information accuracy, depth, voice, and appropriate uses of the tool.”
“Not so long ago, it was relatively easy to identify software-generated papers, but it is becoming increasingly less so. In that space, there has been a lot of good innovation and training in CLA’s Office of Undergraduate Education and UMN’s Center for Innovation in Education. But we will have to continue to think about those issues creatively as a community.”
“When we ask AI to brainstorm, it produces variations on topics that already exist, but it is not truly creative; it can only draw on existing sources. In this sense, AI clarifies some of our core teaching values in CLA. We are not in the business of simply disseminating information or teaching students to write essays. We want students to learn to think broadly and critically about the world. While AI can speed up and deepen our access to information, and even make games and other interactive tools to help us learn a given body of knowledge, the central tasks of classroom reading, writing, talking, and critical thinking can't themselves be automated. We still have to do the work if we want to learn.”
Believe it or not, AI also raises questions about what it means to be human.
“I've been intrigued lately by headlines from the tech world about the value of AI for making people feel less lonely. As a philosopher who studies well-being, I'm interested in whether the human need for connection can be satisfied by non-human machines like chatbots. If not, why not? What exactly is missing from machines? Is it a special human spark that could never be replaced by anything non-human? Or is it a set of capacities that could potentially be part of machine intelligence? My new book is Artificially Yours: Real Friendship in a World of Chatbots forthcoming with Princeton University Press.”
“I began using AI to enhance my creative practice—seeking input on music compositions, virtual reality installations, and conceptual development. I also developed theoretical models exploring the future of learning in the age of AI, which I presented at international conferences across Europe—particularly resonating with younger musicians. Additionally, I integrated AI into my daily workflow by uploading planning documents to receive feedback on productivity and self-management. Most recently, I designed an academic course titled The Classical Musician of Tomorrow: Between Reality, Virtuality, and AI, and used ChatGPT to code simple software for creating chord diagrams.”
What role do the liberal arts play in understanding and scrutinizing artificial intelligence?
Advances in AI are social, cultural, and ethical. As these new technologies reshape industries and influence our daily lives, they also raise important questions about the relationship between people and technology. That's why we need the liberal arts. The liberal arts provide the context to grapple with these questions through a humanity-centered perspective.
Yes, this story was created with the assistance of artificial intelligence. (We had to!)
