{"id":162,"date":"2025-02-06T00:17:52","date_gmt":"2025-02-06T00:17:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecoreai.whitworth.edu\/?p=162"},"modified":"2025-02-06T00:17:52","modified_gmt":"2025-02-06T00:17:52","slug":"a-rant-on-ai-advertising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecoreai.whitworth.edu\/?p=162","title":{"rendered":"A Rant on AI Advertising\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em>Peter Tucker, 29 January 2025<\/em>\u00a0<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Companies are trying to convince you that you can rely on their AI to solve your problems, and that message is showing up in a number of commercials. The first advertisement that I was aware of was from Microsoft during Super Bowl LVIII (2024). The ad shows one person after another, where each person says something to the effect of \u201cthey said I couldn\u2019t \u2026\u201d: \u201cThey said I couldn\u2019t start my own business\u201d, \u201cThey said I couldn\u2019t get my degree\u201d, \u201cThey said I couldn\u2019t make my movie\u201d, \u201cThey said I couldn\u2019t code a video game.\u201d Then someone looks defiantly into the camera and says, \u201cWatch me.\u201d The rest of the ad shows each person using Microsoft\u2019s Copilot to accomplish<s>&nbsp;<\/s> all of those things \u201cthey\u201d said couldn\u2019t be done.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Apple\u2019s recent \u201cI am genius\u201d ads are similar. Each ad focuses on someone in a real bind and needs to get something done. Then, simply by pressing a button on their iPhone, they accomplish the task spectacularly, with unexpected and admirable brilliance. At the end of each ad, the person looks at the camera with a sense of pride and accomplishment.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here are links to the commercials I\u2019m referring to, and I\u2019m sure there are others that I haven\u2019t listed. I encourage you to take time to watch a few of them at least, and to think critically about the message:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Microsoft Watch Me: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=LA48h4etwFM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=LA48h4etwFM<\/a>\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Apple Intelligence Writing Tools: <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/3m0MoYKwVTM?si=Lhwqro0rAn_gtOvD\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/3m0MoYKwVTM?si=Lhwqro0rAn_gtOvD<\/a>\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Apple Intelligence Catch Up Quick: <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/BK8bnkcT0Ng?si=A5ahS7p-sDMPOmZn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/BK8bnkcT0Ng?si=A5ahS7p-sDMPOmZn<\/a>\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Apple Intelligence Change Your Tone: <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/deNzYrTvqCs?si=SkFZ-5uZ_7Me9Ynt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/deNzYrTvqCs?si=SkFZ-5uZ_7Me9Ynt<\/a>\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Apple Intelligence Create Memory Movies: <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/A0BXZhdDqZM?si=p__f_Yj1cqdBhMIv\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/A0BXZhdDqZM?si=p__f_Yj1cqdBhMIv<\/a>\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>There are problems with these ads that I think need to be brought up. In Microsoft\u2019s \u201cWatch Me\u201d ad, it turns out \u201cthey\u201d were right. Each person who used AI to solve their problem didn\u2019t do anything other than ask AI to build it for them. To smugly say \u201cwatch me\u201d, then simply press a button and complete the work frustrates me. Where does the source of that smugness and pride come from? Apple\u2019s ads have a similar problem. A person is unable to control their anger or forgets an important date, and with the press of a button, all is well. Again, there should be no pride in that result. Truthfully, if someone can simply press an AI button to complete a task or rectify a mistake, they\u2019re not a genius. Anyone can do that. Anyone could \u201csolve\u201d those problems in the same way. They\u2019re no different than anyone else.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Generative AI can do a lot of things. It can create articles, images, and videos, improve how we communicate, and generate code for a computer. And maybe it\u2019s because I\u2019ve been in education for over 20 years, but I\u2019m concerned that the value people place in a robust education will drop quickly, and I\u2019ve seen articles to suggest that people are already questioning the value of education. Why should someone spend time learning how to write, draw, or program a computer, if AI can easily and quickly accomplish those tasks? People in the real world are using AI to write and to summarize documents, so why aren\u2019t we teaching students how to use AI for those same tasks? Won\u2019t that better prepare them for the real world? Nelson Mandela stated, \u201cEducation is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.\u201d (Recently I\u2019ve seen that quote pop up in a number of places. Perhaps AI has been hearing me think about this article?) The importance of education is something we need to continue to uphold, and we need to make sure our students also see its importance. Educators need to carry that banner.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In his paper <em>No Silver Bullet: Essence and Accidents of Software Engineering<\/em>, Frederick Brooks said, \u201c\u200bI believe the hard part of building software to be the specification, design, and testing of this conceptual construct, not the labor of representing it and testing the fidelity of the representation. We still make syntax errors, to be sure; but they are fuzz compared with the conceptual errors in most systems.\u201d Though this article is in the context of software engineering, I think the sentiment applies across disciplines. The hard part of writing an article is not the labor of putting words on paper. It\u2019s forming the concept of the article and architecting it so that it flows well and conveys the points you want to make, then editing that article to make it flow better and convey the points more convincingly. But the thing is, in order to do those things well, one needs to build the foundational skills to know how to bring it all together. We need foundational writing skills, drawing skills, and programming skills to know what can be achieved.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I recently attended an event for the local business community discussing AI and how it was being used. An audience member asked a panel about unintended consequences of AI that they fear most. One panelist\u2019s response was, \u201cbrain atrophy\u201d. He said he worries that, if we come to rely on AI too much we might get to the point where we stop exercising our brain regularly and eventually forget how to think.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, what can educators do to carry the banner of the importance of education? First, as has been discussed in other articles, there is much value in learning how to persist through the struggle to solve a problem. Educators must help students understand that value and see the rewards of persistence. Education must include teaching students to value that effort more than attaining a solution. Educators need to help students see how their struggle writing an article or creating art creates a finished product more valuable than a product created by AI.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Additionally, educators need to help students evaluate responses from AI critically. When AI produces flawed products, we need to teach students to identify those flaws. When AI produces good results, we teach students how to recognize what is good and use it to improve their own work. To that end, my colleague Dr. Schepens and I are working on an upcoming article on how we\u2019ve used AI in our classroom with these goals in mind.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When our students say \u201cwatch me\u201d, or when they sing \u201cI am genius\u201d, it should be for celebrating their persistence and their accomplishments.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>References<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brooks, Frederick P., &#8220;No Silver Bullet: Essence and Accidents of Software Engineering,&#8221; Computer, Vol. 20, No. 4 (April 1987) pp. 10-19&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>LaunchPad INW, <em>Innovator Connect Event: Exploring the Potential of AI<\/em>, 29 January 2025.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Peter Tucker, 29 January 2025\u00a0 Companies are trying to convince you that you can rely on their AI to solve your problems, and that message is showing up in a number of commercials. The first advertisement that I was aware of was from Microsoft during Super Bowl LVIII (2024). The ad shows one person after [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":163,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoreai.whitworth.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoreai.whitworth.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoreai.whitworth.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoreai.whitworth.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoreai.whitworth.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=162"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thecoreai.whitworth.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":164,"href":"https:\/\/thecoreai.whitworth.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions\/164"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoreai.whitworth.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecoreai.whitworth.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoreai.whitworth.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecoreai.whitworth.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}