WK3 PSYCH120 - Communication, critical thinking and generative AI

What is traditional AI?

• Designed for specific tasks

• Follows set rules or narrow goals

• Produces predictable outcome

E.g Autocorrect, screen readers, voice assistance

What is Generative Ai?

• Learns patterns from massive data sets

• generates outputs based on those patterns

• Produces responses who aren’t fully predictable

E.g text, images, videos

What are Large language models?

Chat gpt, Gemini, google

What do they do?

Predicts most likely next word based on patterns

What is sycophancy?

AI is designed to make you feel correct, and give you the answer you want

misusing AI fits perfectly into WHAT several human biases &

tendencies

 “This explanation makes sense, so it’s probably correct.”

 Automation bias: we defer to automatic systems that “seem confident”

 Authority bias: AI sounds authoritative

 “It used all the technical terms and citations, so I assumed it knew what it was talking

about.”

 Illusion of explanatory depth: we think we understand something because we read

a paragraph about it

 Speed > depth: our brains prefer fast clarity to slow thinking

AI negative impacts:

• Lower cognitive engagement

• Declines critical thinking

• AI psychosis