VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Henry Zhang: This year, students at Syracuse University were given access to Claude AI software as part of their academic work and learning. Joining a select few schools nationwide who have adapted AI and large language models into their educational system.
Here at the Newhouse School, journalism students are beginning to feel the impacts of how Claude is improving and innovating their learning. Jonah Lipson, a journalism student at the new house school, spoke to NCC News about how AI is helping him improve his work as a student in his data journalism class.
Jonah Lipson: I use Claude a lot for my data journalism class where it’ll help me with depicting like little bugs and issues within my code and it’ll show me how to use things. And if I’m looking for a certain format, like making an HTML, it’ll help me, it’ll teach me how to do that.
Zhang: But not everything is perfect, especially information.
Lipson: Sometimes the information they’re providing you is inaccurate and they don’t even tell you that. They just kind of like spew it. So, I mean, depending on like how you’re using it, if you’re giving them information and telling them to use it in certain ways. That’s one thing but if you are like having it like, you know fully write and create a story without giving it much like giving it the details and the facts that you have that’s that that can be an issue.
Zhang: While students like Jonah Lipson appreciates the luxury of AI tools to assist their learning. Professors are warning students about the potential risks in academia surrounding original work before it’s too late.
Lauren Bavis: We would consider it plagiarism in terms of journalism if you published work that your name was attached to that you didn’t actually write. And prompting isn’t the same thing in my mind as writing. And so if you are prompting AI to write your story based on information that you’ve gathered from reporting, information that you’re providing it in terms of quotes, or if you’re asking the AI to do all of the research and synthesize it and then generate something. What’s been generated isn’t your writing.
Zhang: So what does it mean for educators who are currently teaching during the rapid development of AI. And how are they tailoring their curriculum for journalism students under these circumstances?
Bavis: The best thing that we can do is kind of set an you know, our education to prepare students to use AI when they feel most ready to do that. And it’s going to take a lot of trial and error and it’s going to take a lot of students, you know, being patient with us. And it’s also going to take a lot for professors to make sure that we explain to students exactly what we expect in each of our classes.
Zhang: Reporting from Syracuse University, this is Henry Zhang, NCC News.
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SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC NEWS) – This year, Syracuse University partnered with Claude AI to bring students the latest tools to the classroom to support their learning and education. The Newhouse school in particular are one of the biggest beneficiaries of this tool, helping students like Jonah Lipson in their data journalism classes.
“It’ll help me with little bugs and issues in my code,” Lipson said. “If I’m looking for a certain format, like making an HTML file, it’ll teach me how to do that.”
But Lipson also warns that AI has made critical errors before, especially when handling tasks that need to be factually and informationally accurate.
“Sometimes the information they’re providing is inaccurate and they don’t even tell you that, Lipson said. “If you’re having it fully write and create a story without giving it details or verified facts, that can be an issue.”
But it’s not just students who are raising red flags about potential risk of AI within their work. Similarly for professors, their goal is to teach students about journalism using organic and creative ways, but with the rise of AI they warn students about the risks of publishing generated work.
“We would consider it plagiarism if you published work with your name on it that you didn’t actually write,” Lauren Bavis said. “If AI generates the story, it’s not your work.”
As AI tools grow and adapt from user feedback, professors are scrambling to adjust their curriculum as well. Especially to teach students how to use AI tools safely and responsibly.
“It’s going to take a lot of trial and error,” Bavis said.”Our education is to prepare students to use AI when they feel most ready to do that.”
As AI becomes more involved in classrooms over time, programs like Newhouse will find guidelines to incorporate AI utilization in order to maintain the integrity and principles of education.