Professor Sissel McCarthy gave Hunter alums a primer on artificial intelligence at the college’s first Alumni Weekend reunion in five years.
Her talk, Unleashing Prometheus: The Promise and Peril of AI, compared artificial intelligence to the gift of fire in the Greek myth of Prometheus. Fire symbolizes the essence of knowledge, and when Prometheus gives it to humanity, it changes their destiny. “Prometheus has returned, once again with the gift of knowledge to the human race,” McCarthy said. “Thanks to artificial intelligence, we are at a nexus of unprecedented promise and peril.” She noted that AI is changing how we work, communicate, and solve problems—even how we teach. “It is empowering humanity with unprecedented tools for creativity, efficiency, and innovation,” she said.
But just as Prometheus’s actions led to unintended consequences, including his death, McCarthy said that the rapid advancement of AI demands a new kind of literacy to use it responsibly. “AI literacy is an emerging and evolving concept extending from the traditional and digital literacies,” said McCarthy, who considers AI literacy a core competency for the 21st century.
She explained the difference between basic AI, which solves problems or helps make decisions, and generative AI, or GenAI, which creates something new. About half the audience had never used generative AI, so McCarthy demonstrated how it works by asking ChatGPT to name the top Hunter College alumni from 1950 to 2020. In seconds, it produced a list of 20 names, including actor Ellen Barkin (’76), poet Audre Lorde (’59) and CNN reporter Shimon Prokupecz (’04).
As impressive as ChatGPT can be in answering questions like this, McCarthy warned the audience of its myriad shortcomings, including a proclivity for hallucinations and bias.
“Assessing your output is an indispensable skill to use GenAI effectively and responsibly,” she said. “You need to understand its limitations and always apply your critical thinking skills when using it.”
She encouraged the audience to try using generative AI to write a birthday toast, plan a trip or even come up with a five-day meal plan, but to never allow it to do all the thinking for you. “Think of GenAI as a personal assistant,” McCarthy said. “This assistant is like an eager new intern who is shockingly competent at some things and shockingly incompetent at others.”
She wrapped up by asking ChatGPT to write a four-line poem thanking the audience. It gave her this:
At Hunter, we gathered to see
What AI’s future might be.
With wonders and doubt,
You all came to shout,
And I’m grateful you listened to me!
Then, to put an even finer point on it, she asked ChatGPT to rewrite the poem in the voice of Jay-Z:
Yo, thanks for pullin’ up, y’all made it legit,
Talkin’ AI, where the future and danger both sit.
Keep minds open while the tech rewinds or advances,
Y’all the real MVPs takin’ these chances!
