Thrive in the AI-driven world
Let's start at the beginning: when and how did you first encounter artificial intelligence, and what really got you interested in generative AI?
It was my husband, as an engineer, who started experimenting with AI long before I did, and he often gave me suggestions on how I could use it in research and education. At first, I started using AI only for small, less complex tasks, such as rewording a short text or formatting a bibliography, but as I started to learn, the palette expanded. I now use it regularly to produce summaries of scientific articles or to ask for ideas on what other topics I should include in my course material.
In the marketing world, trends come and go – do you think generative AI is just another wave, or is it already shaping the way we work, and if so, how do you use it in your work?
I don't think AI is just a trend, it has already become too fundamental part of our daily lives – though some use it wisely, while others not so well. I basically use it for repetitive, time-consuming tasks that can easily be automated. One of the most painful aspects of scientific publications, for example, is formatting the bibliography according to the appropriate citation system. Earlier I spent hours just doing this task, even though it has no scientific added value. It was liberating to find that, given the right prompt, AI could do the job in half a minute. I have also used it for translation, although I do not like it too much, since AI cannot reproduce the subtleties of human language, even if it is specifically programmed for translation purposes. To this day I prefer to translate myself, but when I am short of time it can be an asset. AI is also great help when writing summaries of scientific articles, but when I am short of inspiration, I sometimes use it as an aid for creative tasks. Although, since AI basically works from data already available, it can never be as creative as a human, it can give me useful ideas and lead my thinking in new directions.
Many people fear that AI will replace creative professionals – do you think creativity can really be algorithmized?
Creativity is not algorithmic, and AI can never replace humans in this sense, for the very reason I mentioned earlier: it works from already existing data, whereas the human mind can go in unexpected directions that didn't exist before, and create something completely new. In addition to this, it is not negligible that humans are constantly influenced by their environment, everyday situations and other living beings around them. Although the internet is an almost infinite repository, it is precisely these influences that are not available there, so that artificial intelligence cannot currently reproduce the infinite depths of the human mind. The same can be seen in its linguistic skills: the text formulated by AI is formulaic and predictable, while humans are diverse and unique. I think that instead of fearing that AI will replace us, we should learn to use it well, for good purposes.
„We should learn to use it well, for good purposes”
Generative AI can be used not just for work, but sometimes for fun – do you have any personal examples of how AI has helped in a non-work situation?
I often "ask" AI when it comes to travel, for example. What are some places to visit? What are the cultural attractions in the country? What should you possibly look out for? Where and what to eat? As this information is basically available on the internet, but it takes a lot of time to read through travel reviews, recommendations and ratings, AI helps me a lot to gather important information. But we were recently in Albania with friends, and, unfortunately, we had some gaps in our knowledge of the country's history, so we supplemented the museum visit with an instant history lesson generated by ChatGPT, which helped a lot to put what we saw into context.
As a woman in academia and teaching, what opportunities or support do you see in the way AI can complement women's work?
One of the biggest benefits of AI is that it gives you time back. And this can be particularly important for women, who are simultaneously performing in multiple roles – as teachers, researchers, mothers, organisers. It can help to ensure that energy is not consumed by administrative or mechanical tasks, but that time is left for real value creation. Personally, this is partly why I like using AI, there are tasks I can be more efficient at – for example, formatting a bibliography of a publication to meet expectations – I get less tired and have time for other things.
„It can help to ensure that time is left for real value creation”
If you had to name one skill that students should learn now in the AI era, what would it be - and why is it?
Critical thinking. Interpreting information, critiquing sources, seeing connections – these are the skills that will really make you stand out from the crowd. AI is fast, but often superficial. The students who can distinguish data from knowledge, style from content, will always have an advantage, no matter how many algorithms surround them. This skill will also be beneficial in the job market, where in today's flood of fake news and artificial content, it is crucial to take only real, reliable information into account when making decisions, otherwise you can make huge mistakes.
As a teacher and researcher, how much has having AI at your fingertips changed your thinking or your methods?
Apart from the above, it has further developed my critical thinking and instilled in me a good dose of skepticism. As useful as AI is, it also has the added benefit of making people try to take unfair advantage of it. I was shocked when I was confronted with the fact that students were using AI to write their assignments. At first I recognised it almost subconsciously, as I would receive the same or very similar solutions to a creative task. The formatting was different, the wording was different, but the solution was essentially the same. Moreover, it was a uniform solution, devoid of any creativity. But after the initial perplexity, I started to think about what could be done about this problem. It is clear that it is not worth banning it, because the world does not stop, and it is silly to fight against it. So, I chose the path of teaching students how to use artificial intelligence well, ethically. I tell each of my groups the difference I see between students' own ideas and AI-generated suggestions, emphasizing that the former are generally more valuable. Once my students understand this one thing, I think they will be able to cope much better in today's AI-driven world.