Caleb Land, Campus Carrier reporter
Professor of Communication Brian Carroll’s Media Law class has organized a Cultural Event (CE) credit to replace their midterm exam. The event, titled AI and the Future of the Creative Space, will present a panel comprising professors from both Berry College and a guest from Emory University and is hosted in the McAllister Auditorium at 6 p.m.
The panelists, Kimberly Field-Springer, associate professor of communication; Xiaomeng Ye, assistant professor of mathematics and computer science; Chris Whitmire, visiting clinical instructor for creative technologies; and Matthew Sag, professor of law in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data science at Emory University Law School, are recognized for their expertise in the field, and will explain the multifaceted ways in which artificial intelligence is redefining the contours of our contemporary world.
The event will discuss the impact of AI on various creative industries, including the areas of television, music, art, literature and more. The panelists will elaborate on the transformative potential of AI in these spheres, delving into the unprecedented opportunities it presents as well as the inherent challenges and potential threats it poses. Additionally, the session will shed light on the implications of AI within a legal framework.
AI has become much more significant, particularly in academia. This CE credit will shed light on the interplay between AI and the legal boundaries that define its applications. It will also underline the relevance of AI within the context of academic pursuits, elucidating its impact on various aspects of school work.
Field-Springer shared insight on how corporations are using AI and how these usages relate to her field of study within communications.
“Professionals in various industries are using AI programs,” Field-Springer said. “The most common use of AI is in marketing, public relations and sales for drafting documents/labels used in product promotion, utilizing chatbots to perform customer service operations and creating text for collateral materials. OpenAI ChatGPT is similar to any media tool.”
She also explained the struggles that come with relying on these AI programs.
“There are benefits and challenges with moral and ethical implications,” Field-Springer said. “The challenges include the perpetuation and circulation of inaccuracies, misinformation, biases. The benefits include optimizing performance, ideation and even proofreading documents. OpenAI ChatGPT cannot replace communication experts who are necessary to help advise organizational leaders how to effectively implement and use the programs.”
Ye, with a Bachelor’s Degree in Law from Australian University, concurs that AI cannot replace humans, but can only assist their work.
“AI is the new revolution. Computer science has been liberating us from mundane tasks. AI, as a branch of it, is going further to liberate us from some thinking. If used wisely, it can be very beneficial,” Ye said. “With that being said, I think AI can facilitate (not replace) many human activities including arts, designing, socializing, parenting and even counseling.”
Whitmire, who has a Master’s Degree in Artificial Intelligence, notes his expertise on the subject.
“If I have an area of expertise, it would be machine learning. That is the process you go through to teach an AI system to do a specific task,” Whitmire said.
Sag is an expert on the fair use principle and the convergence of copyright regulations with text data mining and machine learning.
“I have worked closely with academic researchers for over a decade helping them navigate legal and ethical issues that arise in processing large volumes of copyrighted material to find patterns, extract useful metadata, and train machine learning systems,” Sag said. “In July 2023, I testified to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Intellectual Property in relation to copyright and Generative AI.”