學校該如何與AI化敵為友 甚至借力使力？

Last November, when ChatGPT was released, many schools felt as if they’d been hit by an asteroid.

ChatGPT去年11月發布時，許多學校感覺像是被小行星撞擊到一般。

In the middle of an academic year, with no warning, teachers were forced to confront the new, alien-seeming technology, which allowed students to write college-level essays, solve challenging problem sets and ace standardized tests.

在學年進行途中，教師毫無預警地被迫面對這項新穎、看似匪夷所思的科技，學生可以用它寫出大學程度的文章，解開具挑戰性的問題集，並在標準化測驗中拿到高分。

Some schools responded by banning ChatGPT and tools like it. But those bans didn’t work, in part because students could simply use the tools on their phones and home computers. And as the year went on, many of the schools that restricted the use of generative artificial intelligence — as the category that includes ChatGPT, Bing, Bard and other tools is called — quietly rolled back their bans.

部分學校之前的應對方式，是禁止ChatGPT和類似的工具。但那些禁令成效不彰，部分原因是學生只要在手機和家中電腦使用這些工具即可。而隨著時間過去，許多曾限制使用「生成式人工智慧」（即包含ChatGPT、Bing、Bard等其他工具的類別名稱）的學校，都默默收回禁令。

There is a lot of confusion and panic, but also a fair bit of curiosity and excitement. Mainly, educators want to know: How do we actually use this stuff to help students learn, rather than just try to catch them cheating?

困惑、不安充斥的同時，卻也存在著相應的好奇與興奮感。教育人員主要想知道的是：我們實際上該如何使用這項事物來幫助學生學習，而不只是忙著抓作弊的學生？

Educators — especially in high schools and colleges — should assume that 100% of their students are using ChatGPT and other generative AI tools on every assignment, in every subject, unless they’re being physically supervised inside a school building.

教育人員，尤其是在高中和大學任教者，應該假設100%的學生都會使用ChatGPT和其他的生成式人工智慧工具，來完成每次、各個科目的作業，除非學生在校舍內有人當場監督。

At most schools, this won’t be completely true.

在多數學校，這不會完全符合實情。

Some students won’t use AI because they have moral qualms about it, because it’s not helpful for their specific assignments, because they lack access to the tools, or because they’re afraid of getting caught.

部分學生並不會使用人工智慧，原因包括對其有道德疑慮、在他們特定的作業上並無幫助、缺少取得這些工具的管道，或者因為害怕被抓到。

But the assumption that everyone is using AI outside class might be closer to the truth than many educators realize.

但假設所有人走出教室後都會使用人工智慧，可能比許多教育人員所想的還要接近事實。

There are many ways AI could reshape the classroom.

人工智慧可透過許多方式，使教室改頭換面。

Ethan Mollick, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, thinks the technology will lead more teachers to adopt a “flipped classroom” — having students learn material outside of class, and practice it in class — which has the advantage of being more resistant to AI cheating.

賓州大學華頓商學院教授莫里克認為，這項科技會驅使更多教師採行「翻轉教室」，讓學生學習課堂以外的素材，並在上課時活用，這個方法的優點是更能防範使用人工智慧作弊。

But students need guidance when it comes to generative AI, and schools that treat it as a passing fad — or an enemy to be vanquished — will miss an opportunity to help them.

但在生成式人工智慧方面，學生需要引導，而學校若將它視為一時的潮流，甚至是必須擊敗的洪水猛獸，將會錯失幫助學生的機會。

“A lot of stuff’s going to break,” Mollick said. “And so we have to decide what we’re doing, rather than fighting a retreat against the AI.”

「很多事物都將改變」，莫里克說，「為此我們必須決定我們要怎麼做，而非面對人工智慧時邊打邊退。」

加州消防廳 訓練人工智慧偵測野火

For years, firefighters in California have relied on a vast network of more than 1,000 mountaintop cameras to detect wildfires. Operators have stared into computer screens around the clock looking for wisps of smoke.

多年來，加州消防隊要偵測野火，仰賴的是由超過一千個山頂攝影機組成的廣大網路。操作員得無時無刻盯著電腦螢幕，尋找縷縷煙霧。

This summer, with wildfire season well underway, California’s main firefighting agency is trying a new approach: training an artificial intelligence program to do the work.

今年夏天，隨著野火季即將到來，加州主要消防單位正進行一項新嘗試：訓練人工智慧來做這項工作。

The idea is to harness one of the state’s great strengths — expertise in AI — and deploy it to prevent small fires from becoming the kinds of conflagrations that have killed scores of residents and destroyed thousands of homes in California over the past decade.

他們的想法是，運用並部署人工智慧技術這項加州的優勢，防止小火災演變成過去十年內奪走數十名加州居民性命、摧毀數千棟房屋的那種大火。

Officials involved in the pilot program say they are happy with early results. Around 40% of the time, the AI software was able to alert firefighters of the presence of smoke before dispatch centers received 911 calls.

參與試用計畫的官員表示，他們對初步成果感到滿意。大約40%情況下，人工智慧軟體能在調度中心接獲911通報前警告消防隊有煙霧出現。

“It has absolutely improved response times,” said Phillip SeLegue, the staff chief of intelligence for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the state’s main firefighting agency better known as Cal Fire. In about two dozen cases, SeLegue said, the AI identified fires that the agency never received 911 calls for. The fires were extinguished when they were still small and manageable.

加州主要消防單位、常被稱作「加火」的加州森林防火廳情資部門負責人賽勒格說：「它絕對改善了反應時間。」賽勒格表示，在20多個案例中，人工智慧辨識出該單位從未接獲911通報的火災。當火勢還很小可以控制時，野火就被撲滅了。

After an exceptionally wet winter, California’s fire season has not been as destructive — so far — as in previous years.

加州剛度過一個格外潮濕的冬天，截至目前為止，今年野火季並未像往年那樣具破壞性。

Cal Fire counts 4,792 wildfires so far this year, lower than the five-year average of 5,422 for this time of year. Perhaps more important, the number of acres burned this year has been only one-fifth of the five-year average of 812,068 acres.

加州森林防火廳統計，今年已發生4792起野火，比過去5年來相同時段的平均值5422起還低。更重要的或許是，今年焚燒面積只有過去5年平均值812068英畝的五分之一。

The AI pilot program, which began in late June and covered six of Cal Fire’s command centers, will be rolled out to all 21 command centers starting in September.

加州森林防火廳6個指揮中心6月底引進這套人工智慧試用軟體，預計9月起全部21個指揮中心都會採用。

But the program’s apparent success comes with caveats. The system can detect fires only visible to the cameras. And at this stage, humans are still needed to make sure the AI program is properly identifying smoke.

軟體的成效雖顯著，但也伴隨一些限制。該系統只能偵測攝影鏡頭可見的火災。且在目前階段，人員仍需在旁確認人工智慧軟體有正確辨識煙霧。

Cal Fire’s mission is to suppress 95% of all fires when they are 10 acres or less. The AI program will help the agency meet that goal, said Neal Driscoll, a geophysicist at the University of California, San Diego, and a leader of the AI project.

加州森林防火廳的任務，是在95%野火火勢延燒少於10英畝時就將其撲滅。聖地牙哥加州大學地球物理學家、這項人工智慧計畫負責人之一迪里斯可表示，人工智慧將協助加州森林防火廳達成目標。

“The success of this project will be the fires you will never hear about,” he said.

他說：「那些你從未聽聞的火災，將是這項計畫的成功之處。」