By Fr. Jaroslav Vracovský SDB and Fr. Ambrose Pereira SDB

       ZOOM, 11 May 2023 -- What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)? Do we need to be afraid of it? How can we make use of it? How can we use it on a pedagogical basis in our everyday life? These were topics of yet another online session of the EAO Social Communication School of Formation. The session was held on the ZOOM platform on 11 May 2023. Besides the participants from different countries, we had groups of students, from Don Bosco Technical School Gabutu, Don Bosco Technological Institute, Boroko, and Don Bosco Rabaul, Papua New Guinea and from the School of Social Communications, Cambodia. The session was animated by Fr Jaroslav Vracovský sdb, SC Mongolia and coordinated by Fr. Ambrose Pereira SDB, EAO Social Communications Coordinator.

       Fr. Jaroslav Vracovsky SDB, made the participants aware of the push and the stunning development in AI since the later half of 2022. “AI has made it possible to solve problems faster and more accurately than humans”, he said. “There is not only one AI, but many different AI applications according to their purpose. Some of the participants have already had some experience with them, but for the majority of us the names like ChatGPT, Midjourney, Crayon or Whisper were quite new”, he continued.

       The second part of the session was dedicated to the introduction of ‘Machine learning’. “AI can learn by experience and that is through lots and lots of data. The participants were given the opportunity to personally run AI programs generating images from text. Simple examples were demonstrated on how to add data using different programs and websites - https://teachablemachine.withgoogle.com/ thus understanding the AI data model, how to train it and use it in praxis.

       The last part was about the ethical aspects of using AI and of the algorithms of AI applications. There is a lot said about value, benefits, and threats in news items. However, there needs to be much more discussion on the ethical aspects of technology, the choices that we are led to make and the power of AI that is leading people to make these choices. We also need to understand the effect on faith and value systems, and it effect on our lives a decade or two down the line.

       Some of the participants are aware and make use of AI, while for others it was something that they were hearing for the first time. “It has opened my eyes to the reality of AI around me”, voiced one participant.

• Link for the presentation

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