Artificial Intelligence and Copyrights - Where do I stand?

 

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Artificial Intelligence

My high school sophomore English teacher once said, "Once you know the rules, you can break them." At that time, I was annoyed. Who writes "perfectly?" Who should even try? I'll have to admit this wasn't my favorite teacher (and years later, I still have some disdain for her), but with thirty-four years having passed and my writing having developed much MUCH more, I give credence to her words of wisdom. I can't imagine my vocabulary or expression ever having evolved if I had access to shortcuts; thankfully, my high school senior English teacher helped shape me into a concise, sophisticated writer and I've only expanded upon this role as I've matured. 

As I pored through the lesson titled Artificial Intelligence: Is It Plagiarism? featured on common sense education, I am tempted to say that Ada (presumed to be a fictitious student) did plagiarize by using AI and not citing the sources. This is a controversial topic considering that AI is available and increasingly considered acceptable. However, I will use the argument that calculators can add, subtract, multiply, and divide but most Gen Xers were not allowed to use them until we developed those skills ourselves; I'm going to go back to the old "Once you know the rules..." argument. I would like to witness students developing creative thoughts and writing conventions before employing the use of AI. Furthermore, the more creative and critical their thinking, the better prompts they can use to generate and evaluate information used by AI. 

According to McClain's article on ChatGPT, I fit into the statistic of Americans ages 50-64 who are less likely to use ChatGPT. However, according to the same article, 37% of adults with postgraduate degrees are likely use to use the application (the highest statistic mentioned regarding education levels). I have already used Wix's AI feature to begin designing my professional presence website, so it's likely I'll find myself using ChatGPT before I know it; this is yet another feature of technology that doesn't quite set well with me and I hope to feel a little better about it as time goes on. In short, I worry about skills and integrity disappearing with AI technology and as of now, I believe there need to be citation protocols that accompany its use. My concern is supported by the grim statistic of Americans that don't trust election information presented by ChatGPT; the percentage is 38%, which spans across both major political parties (McClain). According to the same research, 34% of Americans reported not having heard of ChatGPT (McClain). This statistic indicates that Americans want to know where there is coming from.

Copyrights

The laws surrounding copyrights became a little ambiguous to me when I took LIS 885 (Intro to Archival Principles, Practices, and Services). Essentially, I didn't know that copyrighted works automatically enter the public domain ninety-five years from the first publication or one hundred twenty years from creation. On a personal note, my father had his songs registered with the Library of Congress in 1976 and told me that the copyright expired after twenty years. This concerns me as I would like to own the rights of his songs and wonder if I need to contact the Library of Congress, which I tried to do unsuccessfully twelve years ago. I plan to look into this again. I'll also need to know the laws for my own artwork, which I plan to display and sell online. 

As far as teaching copyrights to young people, I applaud the website titled Copyright and Creativity of Ethical Citizens. As students interact with more materials as well as create and publish them, a knowledge of copyrights is necessary. I especially appreciate the lesson geared toward kindergarteners, which includes a copyrighted video which is easy for that age group to understand. In the video, one child creates a picture and signs his name on it. Another child covers the child's name with his own (written on a sticky note) and gives the picture to a girl; he is embarrassed when the sticky note falls off that was covering the creator's name. The video is followed up with a slide with some question bubbles that ask the following: "What do you think was happening in the video?" "Who created the drawing?" "How do you think Tim felt when he saw someone else's name on the paper?" and "Can I put my name on anything I like?" I felt this lesson was VERY well tailored toward kindergarteners. A little sarcastically, this lesson could probably be visited by teenagers and adults to issue a reminder that ANYTHING that is not created by them is considered "stolen" work. 😉 The videos for primary students were of particular interest to me as I anticipate returning to the elementary world as a librarian or media specialist; I was originally credentialed to teach K-9 and want to influence digital citizenship as early as possible. Thankfully, the CCEC website offers lessons for K-12 as well as professional development videos for teachers. I will certainly need support as I implement more digital citizenship projects in my classroom both currently and in the future.

Image courtesy of Giphy

For more information on creating digital responsibility in the classroom, read this article or view the video attached below. As digital literacy becomes a standard part of the school curriculum, there will be more research regarding this topic. 

Work Cited

McClain, Colleen. "Americans' use of ChatGPT is ticking up, but few trust its election information."

    Pew Research Center, https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/03/26/americans-use-of-

    chatgpt-is-ticking-up-but-few-trust-its-election-information/#who-has-used-chatgpt.

    Accessed 4 June 2024.