Generative AI is making tsunami-sized waves in digital industries at the moment, threatening to cause a structural shift in the way we think about content generation and its availability.
GenAI’s ability to produce propaganda and misinformation has been spoken about at length, especially in the context of the current election cycle.
Read: Tech Bytes: Governments must crackdown on AI interfering with elections, says CDU expert
Dr TJ Thomson, an expert in communication at RMIT University, says there’s no escaping GenAI but AI tools can be used responsibly to improve digital literacy and navigate the information landscape effectively.
Six other ways to use Generative AI
In his article published in The Conversation, Dr Thomson highlights that more than half of Australian office workers already use AI for work – it's being used in almost every sector you can think of.
“On the one hand, AI tools are neutral – they can be used for good or ill depending on one’s intent,” Thomson writes.
“However, the models powering such tools can also suffer from biases based on how they were developed. AI tools, especially image generators, are also power hungry, ratcheting up the world’s energy usage.”
He suggests that learning more about AI tools can improve your digital literacy and help you understand their full impact, which in turn will offer insights into their benefits and pitfalls.
Six tools to try:
Generative Expand tools - These tools use data already contained within an image to expand them, essentially predicting what might have been beyond the frame. The image the AI generates is not based on reality but rather a balance of probabilities, so care needs to be taken when manipulating an image of a person.3rd party Ad. Not an offer or recommendation by Investing.com. See disclosure
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“Next time you’re interacting with a generative AI chatbot, ask it what it’s capable of,” Dr Thomson urges.
“In addition to these six use cases, you might be surprised to know that generative AI can also write code, translate content, make music and describe images.
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“This can be handy for writing alt-text descriptions and making the web more accessible for those with vision impairments.”
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