{"id":76101,"date":"2025-10-22T08:20:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T15:20:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=76101"},"modified":"2025-10-23T16:16:23","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T23:16:23","slug":"ai-for-lumberjacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/ai-for-lumberjacks\/","title":{"rendered":"Not sure about AI? Check out this course from ITS!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like it or not, AI is the future\u2014or at least, it\u2019s an unavoidable part of it. From facial recognition on your phone to the list of recommendations in your streaming service, self-driving cars and diagnostics at your doctor\u2019s office, AI is everywhere.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I recently finished the AI Literacy<\/a> at NAU course in Canvas<\/a> designed for faculty and staff, so here\u2019s a quick summary. The course, which takes about 90 minutes, is a guide for everyone who uses or is thinking about using AI. (Yes, that means you.) It goes over the technical, practical, evaluative and ethical use of AI.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It starts by covering the different types of artificial intelligence out there, how they were designed and how humans can operate them as tools. It gives different examples of how AI is used to complete tasks that might take humans a long time to do, like synthetizing and analyzing reports, translating documents and even generating a coordinated change in delivery systems due to changing weather patterns.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The course later dives into the practical uses of AI by demonstrating how to effectively and ethically use chatbots. This is the part that new and current users of AI might find most helpful since it gives tips on how to prompt information to get more comprehensive responses. It also goes over AI generated images and how to identify them.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The evaluative module goes over the accuracy, bias and limitation of AI tools. It was useful to be reminded that even though AI has no consciousness, it can still be biased. Chatbot responses are based on human programming, and humans are fallible\u2014which is why we always need to cross-reference AI responses to detect signs of misinformation and to maintain our voice and accountability.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But don\u2019t take my word for it. I asked AI.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYes, absolutely\u2014you should always cross-check information from AI for accuracy and biases, especially in the following cases:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n