This small and weird-looking book, Engines of Engagement–A Curious Book About Generative AI, was written by, among others, Sae Schatz, an international star and leader in all things Generative AI, who advises governments and universities and businesses on how to deal with this new technology and is also the Executive Director of the Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes. Rien que ça!
So, the cool part about the book, besides the fact that they look at Generative AI from multiple angles and basically tell the world to stop panicking and start thinking instead, is that they use many illustrations that have been created using several tools, old and new, to illustrate the topics of their chapters.
This is not a book that gives « all the answers » because no one has any answers at this point, but it does provide readers with new perspectives and multiple suggestions, interesting stories, philosophical reflections, and discussion topics that cover a broad range of contexts, from academia to business to technology to philosophy. It is easy to read and not at all using complicated jargon or complex technological explanations. In fact, (I in my dreams) I can see this book becoming assigned reading for all university students in the near future.
In there, I found a paragraph that I have been using to start all my presentations on Generative AI because it summarizes the ONE THING that educators need to understand (and don’t understand!), which is that « pretty much everything is on the table right now: the nature and role of teaching, the ownership and use of educational materials, the structure of our educational systems, the ethics and mechanisms of assessment, the impact of a growing digital divide, and our established model of education, performance, and the cultivation of capability. These new tools even challenge our perspectives on what ‘capability’ is, as well as how and where it is held by individuals and institutions. »
Scary (for many people)!
Bouquins et musique 
Thank you for trying to make us aware. I’m not really scared of that stuff for myself because I’m retired, but even when you are no longer involved in working life, you can notice that the digital divide is growing more and more.
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You are very lucky to be retired. This thing is really going to change the world and it’s a bit scary for many people.
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Ce que je constate, c’est que ça devient compliqué de trouver des réponses rapidement sur le net. Cet AI est partout et ne réfléchit absolument pas comme moi. Il paraît que le navigateur payant Kagi est pas mal. Je vais peut-être le tester.
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Si tu l’essayes, dis-moi ce que tu en penses!
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Ce qui est intéressant c’est quand tu dis que l’IA « ne réfléchit pas comme [toi]. » Comme tu es de ma génération, je pense que je peux facilement en conclure qu’on pense toutes les deux comme Google 🙂 Notre façon d’apprendre, de catégoriser, et de mémoriser les informations a été influencée par cet outil omniprésent. Pour nos parents et grands parents, Google a dû sembler aussi « étranger » à leur façon de réfléchir que l’IA l’est pour nous aujourd’hui. Heureusement, je te rassure (ou pas), on s’habitue rapidement à tout 😉
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