Blog #2- Abner Delgado

Group 1 

    For this presentation, the group that I am in, group 1, was tasked with presenting on the topic of AI in both education and sports, and whether or not it has proven to be a benefit or negative to both fields.. Since our group has 11 people, we decided to split the work by having six of us work on the topic of education, and the five others working on sports. We decided to organize our presentation by first showing how AI is used in education, and the positive and negative effects it has had on the field. We talked about how AI has allowed for students to be more connected with their working, aiding during the pandemic to make remote learning easier for both students and teachers, while also talking about some of the problems like privacy issues AI may have. We also discussed how Florida was handling the use of AI, with the use of modern technologies being endorsed by the government, while also being monitored with the regard that it may be used as a tool for cheating. As for the sports side of our presentation, the second half of our group looked at how it was used to make training athletes more efficient, as well as how it could be used to analyze their performance to aid in making strategies to be used on the field. They talked about how it could be used to analyze opponents' strategy to properly make a plan that could counter it, and how it also can be used to prevent injuries by tracking movement data to measure their exertion. They also discussed its potential use in drafting players by using AI to measure their performance, making it easier for teams to pick players.

Group 2

Next was group 2, whose presentation was focused on how the use of AI has been affecting our mental health, as well as its overall effects on the economy. They began first by talking about its effects on the overall economy, seeing its use in big businesses like Apple, Netflix, and Google, with the use of Siri and AI algorithms respectively, used to streamline the overall user experience. Due to these implementations of AI seen in these large companies, they have been able to see a boost in their profits, being able to add potentially trillions to their profit in places like the UK, likely due to AI also being used to replace some jobs that people did previously, requiring less people to be paid overall. They then discussed how the government is aiding in AI, creating policies to support the development of AI programs across the country, as well as investing in training programs. For the mental health side of the presentation, they began by discussing its use in finding records in databases, a technology hospitals and mental health clinics utilize to aid in finding optimal treatment for patients or clients. By utilizing AI in this way, it allows for more time to be given to the patient centered around what they may need, ensuring a more efficient and thorough process. They also show how it can help diagnose mental disorders through the use of chatbots that ask questions similarly to  a mental practitioner. There also are negative effects of AI listed, such as increase in social isolation, as well as anxiety, depression, and paranoia.

Group 3 & Conclusion

Finally was group 3’s presentation, where they talked about the application of AI in entertainment, overall social life, as well as its potential use in future careers. They began with the entertainment industry, focusing on film/television. They showed the current effects AI has had on script writers, with writers unionizing and going on strike against AI, as many people in large companies have been wanting to replace writers with AI as a way to save money. Similar issues have arisen also in the art community, with artists demanding for protection against usage of their art in AI models, and for companies to not disregard the human touch present in art. There also have been similar issues with actors, as AI models can be trained to copy or imitate someone’s voice, and with AI art models, also their likeness. This type of AI model has also been used to create things called chatbots, which attempt to replicate a person or character so that the user may have a conversation with that character. This has led to the creation of apps such as Xiaoice, Replika, and Character.AI, all which utilize a similar model allowing the user to communicate with a character. Group 3 also talked about its practical applications in different jobs, such as in teaching where it may be used to give a more personal sense of tutoring to students, and in the medical field where AI technologies are beginning to be made for surgical applications. It also has spread to more parts of the medical field though, with the government utilizing AI to aid in patient data security and data collection within healthcare, making it easier for healthcare employees to do. This in turn with the increased funding put into researching AI may make it so that it becomes more utilized within hospitals.

Overall, I felt that each of the groups did an amazing job in their presentations, and in choosing the information they wanted to present. It was interesting to see how each of us took a different approach to the AI topic we wanted to handle, and yet we still found some overlap in certain areas, such as with education, and the medical industry. These presentations have allowed me to have a more open opinion on AI, as before hand I saw it mostly as a detriment to people, with things like AI art being seen to take from paintings people have actually made, and then throwing something out based on that image. But with the knowledge I now have gained, I see how useful AI can be to the general public through an educational standpoint and medical one, even if it still may need some regulations in these fields.