Katherine Elkins: Beyond AI Literacy
Much of the conversation in higher ed right now, argues Katherine Elkins, is about managing AI in the classroom, but that framing misses a much larger transformation.
Much of the conversation in higher ed right now is about managing AI in the classroom, but that framing misses a much larger transformation, one that Katherine Elkins calls the new AI trivium. In this talk she explains the approach as apply, question and shape. We should apply AI to advance knowledge and the public good. We must question what AI means for creativity, meaning, and what should remain human. And more disciplines need to actively shape how AI is built and deployed.
Katherine Elkins is Professor of Humanities and Comparative Literature and Faculty in Computing at Kenyon College, where she co-founded the world's first human-centered AI curricula in 2016. She serves as Principal Investigator representing the Modern Language Association in the NIST AI Safety Institute Consortium (now CAISI) and is co-PI on a Schmidt Sciences grant using AI to preserve endangered cultural heritage archives. Her research on AI and the philosophical dimensions of knowledge and meaning was recently cited by Fields Medalist Terence Tao, and her book The Shapes of Stories (Cambridge University Press) pioneered computational approaches to narrative.
