My academic journey in COMM 555 marked my first step into the field of communications and technology. I feel very fortunate to have had the guidance and encouragement to grow not only in my knowledge of this field, but also in my own personal skills as I completed each assignment. Though I come from a Fine Arts background, my undergraduate degree mostly taught in the “classic” (read; old) ways of visual study, teaching us to draw with charcoal and move on to very hands-on learning tools as I progressed. I remember the excitement I felt in the first week, upon opening the first few readings. Excitement with the subject matter, yes, as this was a new field that I’d been personally interested in for several years now, but also excited at how recent the research was— and how relevant it was to our modern ways of living.
This course was an excellent introduction to what the MACT program had to offer, and as I put forth my effort in applying to the program itself, I will use the multimodal tools that were introduced to me in this course to elevate my application. Each week posed a new challenge to me in what the assignments required— starting with a short video “essay”, progressing to AI generative writing tools, and exploring interesting niche visual applications like WordCloud. As I practiced with each tool, and used them to engage with the readings assigned to us, I could imagine how they might be applied to future workplaces, or to my own personal projects.
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| Myself, surrounded by the several drinks I never finish as I work to complete one of the assignments for this course. |
I entered this course with a very cynical attitude towards AI, as much of my knowledge towards these tools came from the visual arts community— which I would continue to argue, still faces the greatest threats as generative tools do pose very real ethical concerns towards the safety of their careers and intellectual properties. I appreciate how the readings engaged with those concerns, and was particularly interested in Module 3 and 4, where those concerns were integrated into the research and a discussion surrounding their validity could take place. Module 3’s “AI in Fiction and the Future of War”, written by David Benson, was a critical reading in developing my perspectives towards these technologies. I appreciated how Benson engaged with the typical concerns towards the replacement of humanity by robotics, and how he emphasized that creating unfounded fear towards these tools diminishes the ability to create legislation regarding legitimate fears that do pose challenges at the current moment. The fourth reading in this module, “Expert views about missing AI narratives”, by Chubb, Reed, and Cowling, also engaged in this dialogue, laying out the pros and cons of generative AI in a way that was informative and provided me with a better foundation to base my own criticisms and praise towards these tools.
Module 4 was also an important week for me, as it developed on my most prominent concerns towards these technologies, with Tatum Hunter’s article, “AI selfies— and their critics— are taking the internet by storm”. I appreciated that our readings provided varying perspectives and formality in regards to these social, political, and technological issues. The inclusion of voices across the AI pros/cons spectrum helped to provide a much more grounded foundation of knowledge which I was then able to use in my term project. The essay itself was a learning experience for which I am extremely grateful. During the course of this semester, I faced some fairly severe challenges in my personal life that made it difficult for me to fully understand the task posed with the Selfie assignment. My first submission was written based on my previous understanding of what academic papers typically looked like, as my undergraduate program required numerous essay-type research papers to be submitted. I was fortunate to have been given the opportunity to rewrite this essay after receiving extensive feedback from Dr. Laccetti and my classmate, Selena. Using this feedback, I was able to dive deeper into my research and format the paper in a way that better matched the research sources that were provided to us throughout the course. I believe that this opportunity, and the ability to grow and put my new knowledge to use directly, allowed me to grow in my personal writing capabilities in ways that I was not able to access in my previous academic studies. For this, I am very glad to have taken this class. Being able to take this practice and understanding into my future courses, and use it to leverage myself academically and in the workforce, makes the time and energy spent in COMM 555 worth its weight in gold. I do not regret having taken this course this semester, despite the timing unfortunately lining up with my apartment burning down a few weeks in. Perhaps it is somewhat vain, but the confidence I gained from this growth was helpful in overcoming those personal challenges in other facets of my life.
Already, this introduction to the communications field, and what was essentially my first applied experience with AI tools, has changed the way that I engage with my personal and professional life. I better understand the positive uses of generative tools like ChatGPT, which I was once so wary and cynical of. Since the start of this course, I have utilized these tools to aid in time consuming activities such as writing cover letters, optimizing my resume, and even in my research as a compliment for my own search for sources. Being able to ask the bot a question, and ask for further sources which would answer said question, was a unique and fascinating experience that greatly helped me in my academic journey. Using AI in this way showed me the potential for these tools to create positive change in society as a whole, as it can expedite research processes, and better a candidate’s chances in the job market. However, I maintain the belief that these tools can not replace a formal education, as users of these tools must always remain critical and skeptical of the results it wields. I believe that these tools should be integrated into our education system, and quickly— the sooner people learn about the biases inherent in these technologies, and learn ethical best practices to engage with them, the better society will be to face inevitable disinformation and potential threats that they may pose. When I graduated high school, I remember our valedictorian’s speech strongly emphasized our need to be critical of disinformation (this was 2017, the year after a major and divisive election in the USA). I believe that this threat is even more prominent now, as AI tools make it easy to not only create the deceptive, well-written “news articles” that were circulated often at that time, but also as visual generation progresses in efficiency and accuracy. Already, we see deepfakes of celebrities, and images of political leaders engaging in a range of controversial behaviours, being circulated on social media.
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| Funny as it may be, even these images show an implicit bias in their depiction of political figures. Trump Vader may be feared by some, but still he would have his army of stormtroopers supporting him. |
This brings me to another important point, which COMM 555 also brought forth in many readings. Social media has become the primary source of information for many individuals, due to its convenience and addictive nature. Younger generations are especially susceptible to these disinformation campaigns, as they may lack the education and training necessary to critically engage with all forms of media. It is more important now than ever before to remind oneself that these social media companies are privately owned, and are therefore shaped by their owners and shareholders. Obviously, Twitter’s platform was drastically changed once it was purchased by Elon Musk, and now harbours dangerous levels of hate speech that greatly influence its user base and retention. Less spoken of, though, and perhaps even more dangerous than this overt display of hate speech, it Meta’s decision to ban news altogether from their social media platforms in Canada, in response to new government legislation. I was personally shocked when I saw this, and immediately recognized the harm that such choices (see; censorship) would have upon its user base. The only way for many Canadians to easily access breaking, local, or important news is now through the lens of private accounts, which taint each post and article with heavy bias. This has further divided users of these applications, and led to a polarity in certain topics that may not have been controversial otherwise. When I think about the role AI will play in these social media apps, I reminisce on the ways they may contribute to this rift, further incentivizing emotional reactions to facts and science.
Altogether, my knowledge and understanding of the various topics covered in COMM 555 have impressed upon me the importance of seeking out varying perspectives. When I have an emotional reaction to a post, I take the time to pause and look this topic up on more credible sources. I seek out perspectives from marginalized voices, emphasizing my education into the issues faced by visible minorities and discriminated groups in both the global and local community. Module 8’s assignment showed me how certain perspectives are elevated over others— the Wikipedia article my group engaged with was a glaring example of the ways women and BIPOC voices are omitted from history and research. The Wiki page we modified, regarding the topic of “Technobiophilia”, did not even appropriately attribute the research of this topic to the term’s creator, Sue Thomas. Despite there being very little information on the topic, only one sentence stated that Thomas actually coined the term. Beyond that, there was a paragraph which quoted a man who was speaking about the topic, instead of utilizing a quote from Thomas herself to describe her own research. It was shocking to have such an astute example of the omission of marginalized perspectives shown to us right after engaging with the readings on this issue.
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| The original wikipedia page for Technobiophilia, which shows significantly contributions attributed to male scholars, with remarkably little from Thomas herself. |
COMM 555 helped me grow personally, professionally, and academically. I was able to challenge the assumptions I had brought into this class, and use my research to either enhance my arguments, or change my perspective on various topics. I appreciated the ability to gain a well-rounded education on topics which are so divisive in the media. I believe education is the fastest path to unification, empathy, and understanding. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to make my first steps down this path towards the field of communications and technology.
References
Benson, David (March 2022). AI in Fiction and the Future of War, The Strategy Bridge. Retrieved from: https://thestrategybridge.org/the-bridge/2022/6/3/ai-in-fiction-and-the-future-of-war
Bond, S. (2024, February 8). Ai fakes raise election risks as lawmakers and tech companies scramble to catch up. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2024/02/08/1229641751/ai-deepfakes-election-risks-lawmakers-tech-companies-artificial-intelligence#:~:text=AI%2Dgenerated%20deepfakes%20are%20moving,depicting%20things%20that%20never%20happened.
Chubb, J., Reed, D. & Cowling, P.(2022). Expert views about missing AI narratives: is there an AI story crisis?. AI & Soc. https://doi-org.login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/10.1007/s00146-022-01548-2 or https://rdcu.be/c0KwN
Dunn, S. (2024, February 29). Taylor Swift, Bobbi Althoff, Piers Morgan: Updated list of celebrity deepfake scandals 2024. CCN.com. https://www.ccn.com/news/taylor-swift-bobbi-althoff-piers-morgan-celebrity-deepfake-scandals-2024/#:~:text=handed%20moderation%20strategies.-,Piers%20Morgan%20and%20Oprah%20Winfrey%20Misrepresented%20in%20Deepfake%20Ads,a%20controversial%20self%2Dhelp%20course
Isai, V. (2023, August 3). Missing from your Facebook News Feed: Canadian news. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/03/world/canada/meta-facebook-news-feed-removed.html#:~:text=Meta%20this%20week%20began%20blocking,publishers%20for%20using%20their%20content.
Maharajh, N. (2023, July 7). The best ai-generated art of politicians. Medium. https://medium.com/science-for-life/the-best-ai-generated-art-of-politicians-cbcec1978f55
Nakano/Bloomberg, A. C. and E. (2023, July 19). Twitter’s surge in harmful content keeps advertiser away. Time. https://time.com/6295711/twitters-hate-content-advertisers/
Various. (2024, April 8). Technobiophilia. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technobiophilia
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