“AI isn’t intelligence. ChatGPT and other large language models are stochastic parrots, capable of churning out plausible sentences but not of understanding meaning.”

“A toddler can recognize a cow after seeing just a few cows. AI, by contrast, needs to be trained on massive datasets.”

“The human brain evolved over 500 million years to help people make sense of a world of multifarious objects, within the lived contexts that embed their learning in social relations and affective experiences. Deprived of any such biological or social affordances, today’s machine learning models require arsenals of computer power… to achieve even modest capabilities.”

Large language models are “stochastic parrots—programs that generate plausible text in response to a user’s prompt without benefit of any human-like understanding… without any reference to meaning.”

“The model does not understand the meaning of the words it uses, only the probabilities of their sequence.”

“The tech industry thrives on hype. AI is often described as if it were about to achieve human-like consciousness.”

“…conflating predictive analytics with ‘intelligence’ and massive datasets with ‘knowledge’ and ‘experience’—are primarily the result of marketing hype, technological obscurantism, and public ignorance”

“Such inflated claims distort public understanding and distract from real issues of ethics and accountability.”

“Behind the curtain are countless low-paid workers labeling data, training responses, and filtering out offensive outputs.”

“GPT-3 was found to emit ‘persistent toxic’ content, ‘severe’ bias… and ‘misconceptions’… LLMs are prone to confident-sounding ‘hallucinations’”

“Such inflated claims distort public understanding and distract from real issues of ethics and accountability.”

“Since text generators do a good job with syntax, but suffer from simplistic, derivative, or inaccurate content, requiring students to work from this shallow foundation is hardly the best way to empower their thinking”

“If students lean on AI to produce their writing, they risk outsourcing not only words but thought itself.”

“Writing is thinking. To cede it to a machine is to short-circuit the very process education is meant to cultivate.”

“Humanists—including those who teach writing as a medium of public communication, shared experience, democratic dialogue, artistic experiment, and new knowledge—are ideal ‘domain experts’ for the current juncture”

“The humanities have always asked questions of meaning, context, and ethics — questions that must be posed to AI as well.”

“AI is not only a technological artifact but a social one, shaped by language, culture, and politics.”

“AI systems learn from biased data and inevitably reproduce those biases, sometimes in harmful or discriminatory ways.”

“Clearly, governments, policymakers, and citizen groups must regulate ‘AI’ practices in earnest… to prevent harms to the marginalized and vulnerable”

“The stakes are democratic. Without accountability, AI risks becoming a tool of exploitation and manipulation.”

“Rather than retreating in fear, educators in the humanities should lean in — helping students, citizens, and policymakers make sense of AI.”