1 - How AI-Based Tools Work
Introduction
You might have heard about or used artificial intelligence-based tools like TerpAI, ChatGPT, Google Gemini, or Adobe Firefly, but how do these tools actually work? This section will cover how tools like these are made, how they generate information, and some considerations to think about as you assess if and how to use them.
On the next page, you'll be asked to check your knowledge of this information in a short quiz.
How do AI-based tools work?
What is actually going on when you use an AI-based tool? Check out this three-minute explanation from Hal Daumé III, Professor of Computer Science at University of Maryland, Institute Director for the Institute for Trustworthy AI in Law & Society (TRAILS), and Director of the Artificial Intelligence Interdisciplinary Institute at Maryland (AIM).
Explore different types of AI
While some AI-based tools might come to your mind right away, there are a lot of different tools out there with a lot of different uses. As you evaluate how to use these tools responsibly in your academic work, it is useful to keep the breadth of potential uses in mind. You or your instructor might want to use one kind of tool for a certain situation but not others.
Click through the sections below to explore some potential applications of Generative AI. Please note that this list is not comprehensive or an endorsement of any particular tool used in the examples.
Take a closer look at ChatGPT
Here are four facts about ChatGPT that will be helpful as you think about its uses.
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- ChatGPT is developed by a company called OpenAI, based in San Francisco, CA. Their stated mission is "to ensure that artificial general intelligence—AI systems that are generally smarter than humans—benefits all of humanity." Chat GPT is just one of OpenAI's products, which also include DALL-E, the text-to-image generator. OpenAI begun as a nonprofit in 2015 then became a for-profit company in 2019. They received investments from different sources, including $1 billion from Microsoft, which uses the same AI model that powers ChatGPT and DALL-E in for Bing AI.
- The "GPT" in ChatGPT stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer. Hover over each word to learn more about its meaning.
- It can generate new text for any written prompt and is designed to provide human-like conversational interactions. Some examples of things it can do include: write an essay, generate a definition, de-bug or write functional code, suggest tourist destinations, make up recipes based on a collection of ingredients, craft a love letter, etc.
- It produces unique responses each time, and you can tweak its responses because it saves the whole chat conversation, and uses your feedback as data to adjust its output. You can instruct it to respond to you in different ways (e.g. "please reply to me like I'm in 2nd grade").
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Using AI carefully and thoughtfully
Alongside the exciting possibilities of these AI-based tools, there are a good number of things to be careful about as you assess if and when you want to use them. Start thinking through major considerations in this two-minute overview video from Katie Shilton, Associate Professor in the College of Information and Co-Director of the BS in Social Data Science at University of Maryland, Co-PI of The Institute for Trustworthy AI in Law & Society (TRAILS).
Explore each section for more about the topics listed below.
Additional resources (optional reading)
Explore these additional optional resources for more information on different topics mentioned on this page, as well as references for the content.
Now that you learned generally how AI-based tools work as well as their benefits and risks, continue onto the next page of this module to check your knowledge!
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