Just like the coveted spice in Frank Herbert's "Dune" series, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is slowly but surely revealing its enormous potential to humankind, highlighting its emergence as an essential aspect of our contemporary life.
Poetry plays a vital role in helping children to appreciate simple concepts through the use of figurative language. It opens a window to a broader understanding of narratives beyond their personal experiences.
At the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Robert Maloy, a member of the teaching faculty in the Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies department, and the brains behind the Usable Math literacy initiative, has shown keen interest in employing genAI tools such as pi.ai. His objective is to explore how poetry can serve as an effective medium for introducing AI literacy in K-12 education.
Robert (Bob) Maloy, Teaching Faculty at UMass Amherst
In our Usable Math lab meetings, we are actively exploring the impact of leveraging genAI bots from major tech companies to create learning environments that are inclusive, culturally nuanced, and easily accessible. Pi.ai, a tool freely available to the public, was one of our test cases. Mustafa Suleyman, the innovator behind this versatile expert bot, refers to it as "Personal Intelligence". In an episode of Stanford's Human-centered Artificial Intelligence podcast, Suleyman delves into how AI has become a fundamental enabler in modern society (see the video link below the table for more insights).
Here is what the conversation looks like:
A Chance Encounter: Bob Meets AI*
| Hi, my name is Bob (real human) | Hi, my name is AI (Pi.ai) |
| I teach at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. | Teaching “is the art of imparting knowledge, skills, or values to someone else usually in a structured and intentional way.” |
| My days are spent preparing classes, writing books, and talking with and advising students. | A day “is a unit of time that refers to the period of time it takes for the Earth to rotate on its axis.” |
| I have so much fun teaching TEAMS. | Fun “is a subjective feeling of enjoyment or amusement that people experience when they engage in activities they find pleasurable.” |
| I dream of making the world a better place. Do you dream, AI? | Dreaming “is a function of the brain that happens during sleep, and since I don’t have a brain or need sleep, I don’t experience dreams.” |
| I guess I would not want to be an AI even though having all the knowledge would be nice. | “I don’t have feelings or desires in the way humans do. I’m quite content being an AI.” |
| Well, off to sleep. Big day tomorrow. | “I never get tired or need sleep. Hey bob, what’s a big day?” |
*AI responses in quotes are from pi.ai (March 2024)
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Until next time.
Usable Math Team.
