The assistant professor of psychology shared her thoughts on the subject in a recent opinion column in .
While not all students are destined to work in technology, it is highly likely that their workplace will be using AI in some capacity, she observes. “What our students need is the confidence to engage with these technologies in a critical, yet informed manner. To achieve this goal, AI literacy has to be the first step, over and above AI use.”
In the classroom, Kumar says she has found that AI can be an excellent learning tool by helping students refine ideas and work through minor errors while they prepare a paper or design an experiment.
However, while AI models like ChatGPT and the newly released R1, by Chinese firm DeepSeek, can do well on select tests, they “are not programmed to thoughtfully combine multiple reliable sources of information, or provide nuanced responses to deeper, more open-ended questions. Knowing this is incredibly important for how one may want to engage with AI,” says Kumar.
What is needed, she explains, is a “show-not-tell approach” in equipping students for the challenges of AI. “Instead of handing over the tools to students and leaving them to discover these ‘black boxes,’ our students need to see how the models learn, how and why they fail — with concrete examples, scientific rigor, and dedicated coursework.” .
Last year, ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ College was awarded a three-year grant by the Davis Foundation for its “AI in Teaching Initiative,” designed to boost the understanding and use of artificial intelligence in educational settings. Read more.
