Ian Linkletter, MLIS

Emerging Technology & Open Education Librarian; British Columbia Institute of Technology

Artificial Intelligence and Copyright: Navigating Uncertainty

Could ChatGPT be the biggest copyright scam in history? Generative AI tools are fueled by the commercial exploitation of massive amounts of copyrighted works, usually without permission, attribution, or compensation. Some copyright holders have filed lawsuits, but it will take years of courtroom battles to determine whether infringements are taking place. Today GenAI is already costing some creators their livelihoods, devaluing their work by saturating the market with synthetic content. Big Tech companies have offered indemnity to users of their GenAI tools, which means that a creator wishing to file a copyright infringement claim has to face a giant with unmatched legal funds.

We will explore the legal landscape surrounding copyright and student-created work, including a look at a 2007 copyright lawsuit against Turnitin brought by students. As many of the educational technology companies our institutions do business with rush to monetize student data to develop new GenAI products, we need to ask ourselves how we can support students who seek to assert their rights.

Additionally, we need to prepare ourselves for corporate aggression, as companies can and do use lawsuits to silence academic critics. I will share my story, in which I am facing a copyright infringement lawsuit simply for linking to an academic surveillance company’s YouTube videos in order to criticize their product. The talk will conclude with a call to action: we must work together to protect our rights from emerging technologies like GenAI and their corporate purveyors.

Dr. Brenna Clarke Gray

Coordinator, Educational Technologies, Thompson Rivers University

Where the Rubber Meets the Road:

Institutional Values, Community Standards, and the Challenge of Generative AI

Generative AI represents a challenging proposition: we want to prepare our learners for the world and workforce as it exists, and banning AI technologies from our classrooms and assessments is very likely a fool’s errand. But at the same time, the very foundation of these technologies stands in opposition to many of the core values our institutions espouse, like equity, the value of intellectual property, the importance of informed consent, and environmental sustainability. How do we move forward through this brave new world without turning our core missions and values into so much marketing boilerplate? In this talk, we’ll explore the tensions and try to find a path to walk together.

Rebecca Sweetman

Associate Director of Educational Technologies for the Faculty of Arts and Science,  Queen’s University

Responsibility and Complicity: A look at some harms of Large Language Models (LLMs)

Amidst the cacophony of articles, OpEds, and webinars, serious considerations over the harms of LLMs in higher ed have largely gone amiss. Before we engage in conversations about how we can ethically use generative AI for teaching, learning, and assessment, we must first ask if these tools are ethical, and if they create a more equitable future of learning. Instead of a fatalistic embrace of technology as progress, we must consider: is this progress? What ethics guide the design, operationalization, and future legacies of LLMs, and how are we complicit? Sharing an interactive graphic (https://h5pstudio.ecampusontario.ca/content/51741) to assess this harm landscape, this session will ask us to deeply consider the big picture ethics of LLMs in higher education, and our responsibility to address them.

Dr. Ann Gagné

Senior Educational Developer, Accessibility & Inclusion, Brock University

Generative AI and Accessibility Considerations for USE

There has been a lot of discussion and a sense of urgency around the use of generative AI in different pedagogical contexts. However, the accessibility of these tools and the accessible use of these tools is not something that has been given the same space and urgency. This is because accessibility literacy is not something that is formally part of higher education spaces and often accessibility discussions are siloed to spaces that function in a reactive instead of a proactive way. This session will focus on accessibility considerations for generative AI use, and will highlight considerations when planning to use different GenAI tools as part of assessments or activities, and some ways GenAI can support accessibility and inclusion.