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Ryan McPherson, M.A, is founder of Storytelling Movement LLC and award-winning Professor of Practice and Faculty Champion at UTSA. After serving on the PRSA-SA Ethics Month AI panel on Sept 14, Professor McPherson agreed to share his personal perspectives on the shift to greater reliance on AI in the practice of PR.
How do you use AI in your work?
I consult on how to best use AI tools for organizations, entrepreneurs, and faculty.
I encourage responsible use for student digital communication fluency.
Most recently I used AI to help write a podcasting textbook to save students money.
I also use it for things like helping create video podcast YT show notes from my transcripts.
How are students using AI?
I ask them to use AI for brainstorming, survey questions, certain project dimensions, writing feedback (like a writing tutor), role playing, and in any way that does not violate our course and university policies.
What are some ways you check to make sure students are doing their own work?
We have an academic honesty policy that addresses this. I design assignments and assessments in a way that allows and sometimes requires people to use AI, with guidance and limitations. The plagiarism detectors are built into our tools now, so that makes it a lot easier to detect it in cases where AI’s usage is prohibited. Software designers have adjusted some models to provide a digital signature to make plagiarism more detectable.
However, these tools are often flawed. One of my first AI talks was called “a strange game” –
a reference from the movie War Games, since no one wins in the escalation. That is how I see the tool battles around plagiarism. It makes more sense to guide students on how to ethically use these tools for better digital fluency, so they can use them productively, and not abuse them.
Is AI the new calculator that does the writing, so we can focus on the bigger strategy?
I think AI will be able to help us with the bigger strategic thinking too. But it cannot replace the relational side of our work. Soft skills and relationships have always been of great importance—especially in PR. Now they are the key to job survival in many cases.
If you’re aggregating data, how can you make sure you’re not violating copyrights?
While we are not lawyers, we each have a responsibility of due diligence to give credit wherever it is due. The laws are being updated, and I look forward to seeing what the courts decide.
About Citations, how can you properly attribute data to a source if content is generated with AI?
I was pleased when the format authorities solved this one. Citing the prompt (the word used to instruct the AI system to generate the desired response) and following guides like the MLS’ style for citing Generative AI will help us with citations.
How could AI-generated copy impact an agency’s or company’s credibility?
The risk of harm is still much higher than we want. Using AI incorrectly can lessen credibility of any agency or company, especially since hallucinations are still a problem. AI use can also open organizations up to copyright infringement and similar legal problems.
How can you prevent bias when using AI?
You cannot. Bias is everywhere and is in the language on which AI was trained. It was part of the army of paid labelers too. Humans have bias, so the work they did labeling has bias. Different models of AI have different perspectives and bias. All we can do is our best. It helps to get very specific with asking and testing for a perspective when prompting.
How do you prevent stealing or misusing an author’s or artist’s work?
Each person has a responsibility for due diligence before publishing a work. While asking the machine to share sources for credit helps, it is an imperfect tool. This is on the list of problems to be worked out.
What guidance do you offer students and clients reviewing AI-generated materials?
Assume your AI system is always hallucinating, and verify everything being produced.
Our current generative AI systems are more useful when you can provide them with your contextual data and perspective. While many of the security concerns and possible bad implications have improved over time, risks remain.
Providing comprehensive staff training is a great first step in understanding and addressing the risks and rewards.
What is it about AI that you are most concerned about?
I am more optimistic than pessimistic.
A current concern is that bad actors are using AI for selfish and destructive ends. I urge everyone to build clear guardrails now that will help us in the future. It takes individual and group effort to develop good systems and safeguards to prevent some of the darkest potential outcomes.
In the long term, it is easy to see that we are on the path to super intelligent systems, and we are woefully underprepared for the implications of these systems. I am very optimistic for the short term, but less hopeful about the long term. We have all seen the end of movies about AI, where it’s revealed that protagonists were overly optimistic about their fellow humans’ decision- making.
Let’s Keep Talking about AI
While this discussion must continue, it’s vital to acknowledge that McPherson is not alone in feeling and expressing his fears. Read any one of countless articles where AI experts discuss caution. Check out Futurism’s Five Experts Share What Scares Them the Most About AI. Business Insider’s These are the 3 biggest fears about AI — and here's how worried you should be about them.
Did you catch the 60 Minutes segment about the Godfather of AI, who shared his thoughts on AI’s benefits and dangers? AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton warned that there’s no guaranteed path to safety as artificial intelligence advances. He worries that AI “might take over” one day if it isn’t developed responsibly.
Please share your concerns and steps you are taking to implement AI safely, ethically, and effectively in your workplace.
Melissa May, MA, APR
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