Dr. Isabel Pedersen on AI Hype in news media

ChatGPT marks the first instance of widespread AI use and, arguably, hype  has  played a pivotal role in its adoption as this is the first generative AI technology to receive extensive public media attention. Insight into the impact and broader phenomenon of AI hype falls in the research field of Rhetoric. An area of communication studies, Rhetoric is the study of persuasion and manipulation in all forms of communication like social media, video broadcasting or print news.

AI Hype was the focus of Dr. Isabel Pedersen’s presentation at RhetCan 2024 in June of this year. The annual conference of the Canadian Society for the Study of Rhetoric advances the study of rhetoric and examines its connections with various fields of inquiry and practice. Dr. Isabel Pedersen’s presentation at RhetCan 2024 offered perspective on the shock and awe of AI rhetoric, a topic she further explores in an Open/Technology in Education, Society, and Scholarship Association (OTESSA) Journal article, “Generative AI Adoption in Postsecondary Education, AI Hype, and ChatGPT’s Launch,” published in July of this year.

Dr. Pedersen is the Director of the Digital Life Institute (DLI), an international research network focused on the cultural implications of emerging digital technologies. At the Institute she also leads the AI and Social Implications cluster. As a professor of Communication Studies at Ontario Tech University, her research delves into the cultural, ethical, and political impacts of new technologies.

In the introduction to her OTESSA journal article, Pedersen characterizes the rapid adoption of ChatGPT as “a shocking societal turn” which disrupted meaningful, principled discussions about its implications, specifically in postsecondary education. Through a critical discourse analysis, Pedersen argues the overall narrative available to educators in all professional roles compelled them to adopt and adapt to technology that was, to some extent, thrust upon them. This situation, she claims, has obscured reasonable practices and hindered the establishment of clear policies regarding the use of generative AI in education. The issue, specifically, is that hyped narratives not only sensationalize but instill values that are difficult to change, producing what Dr. Delon Omrow has called “values via discourse” that encompass “their legitimation, and transformation into taken-for-granted assumptions in the public domain” (Omrow, 2018). This means both students and educators adopted ChatGPT during a time of intensely hyped messaging that posited the technology’s inevitable deployment.

Pedersen employs a critical discourse analysis through a case study about mainstream news to query language use in mainstream media texts. The purpose of this study was to examine the ways hyped rhetoric framed the emergent technology in reference to education in the six months following the release of ChatGPT.  She highlights why ChatGPT is appealing, as well as threatening. As Pedersen states: “On the one hand, generative AI is a highly efficient tool that replaces traditional and foundational work for students, instructors and education professionals alike. On the other hand, participation, adoption, and planning for its use is mired in panic for the future of education.” According to Pedersen, these oppositions function in tandem to create AI hype.

Pedersen calls for future research in postsecondary institutions to pay particular attention to the expansion of emergent generative AI technologies for education. She highlights the need for input from traditionally marginalized communities and draws on the work of Ontario Tech professor Dr. Alyson King, who puts forth co-design with Indigenous students as a value to be implemented to reimagine the uses of emergent AI technologies (King and Brigham, 2023). Specifically, Pedersen argues: “ AI Literacy, critical media literacy, civic engagement, and ethically-aligned adoption and assessment of AI writing tools will be needed.”

Dr. Pedersen’s insights underscore the critical need for a balanced approach to the integration of AI in education, emphasizing both its potential benefits and the importance of ethical considerations. Her call for inclusive research and AI literacy offers a roadmap to harness generative AI technologies responsibly, ensuring they serve as tools for empowerment rather than sources of disruption.