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David Gunkel, professor of communications at Northern Illinois
University in DeKalb, said artificial intelligence is not a new
phenomenon, as some form of AI has been around since the 1950s.
“At that point in time, the goal was to emulate various aspects
of human intelligence behavior in a machine,” Gunkel said.
As the technology expands, regulation is sure to follow. In
2020, Illinois adopted the Artificial Intelligence Video
Interview Act, which establishes parameters for employer use of
AI during the hiring process.
Gunkel sees AI eventually costing some people their jobs, like
those who write legal briefs, copywriting or even the visual
arts.
“We can already see evidence of this as we have a number of
occupations which are really being challenged by these large
language models,” Gunkel said.
Gunkel said colleges and universities need to take steps to
ensure students aren’t just leaving their writing assignments to
their computer.
“Right now there is a huge concern in higher education, not just
at NIU but across the world, about the large language models
like ChatGPT and Google Bard can generate credible responses to
questions that we prompt the algorithm with,” he said.
Currently there is legislation in the Illinois Senate that would
create the Generative AI and Natural Language Processing Task
Force. The task force would consist of 20 members and would hold
public meetings in Chicago, Springfield, Metro East, Quad Cities
and in southern Illinois.
Kevin Bessler reports on statewide issues in
Illinois for the Center Square. He has over 30 years of
experience in radio news reporting throughout the Midwest.
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