Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a Communication Pedagogy Mega-Risk
TL;DR
It is argued that it is the responsibility of instructional communication scholars, communication education teachers, and communication pedagogy experts to discover strategies for harnessing generative AI's power to manage the potential threats posed by it and extend communication theory and research in ways that may ultimately employ generative AI to improve communication pedagogy.
Abstract
With the ever-expanding capabilities offered by artificial intelligence (AI), communication teachers, scholars, and practitioners are currently in the midst of heated debates about whether and how to use AI both in our classrooms and in our research. This essay contextualizes the debate by describing generative AI as a technological mega-risk that, if left unchecked, may manifest into a mega-crisis impacting people and planet in extraordinarily harmful ways. Consequently, I argue that it is our responsibility as instructional communication scholars, communication education teachers, and communication pedagogy experts to discover strategies for harnessing its power to manage the potential threats posed by it and, in the process, extend communication theory and research in ways that may ultimately employ generative AI to improve communication pedagogy.