What happens to the way we think when AI thinks alongside us?
Generative AI has already become part of how we learn, work, create and conduct research. Now, Professor Peter Dalsgaard from the Department of Digital Design and Information Studies at the School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, will help lead a new six-year research centre investigating how AI affects the way we think – and how we can develop and use AI while ensuring that people retain their understanding, agency and control.
When we use AI to write a text, solve a problem or develop an idea, we may save time. But what happens to the way we think, learn and make decisions in the process?
This is the central focus of the new interdisciplinary research centre, Thinking With Machines: Human Cognition in the Age of GenAI.
The Carlsberg Foundation is supporting the centre with DKK 50 million over six years, and around 20 researchers are expected to be involved.
The centre will be jointly led by Peter Dalsgaard, Professor at the Department of Digital Design and Information Studies at the School of Communication and Culture, and Professors Niklas Elmqvist and Marianne Graves Petersen from the Department of Computer Science at Aarhus University.
Together, they bring perspectives from the humanities, design and computer science to three closely related questions that require an understanding of technology, people and the contexts in which AI is used:
How is AI changing the way we think? How could it change the way we think? And how should it change the way we think?
“AI is already helping us write, learn and develop ideas. But what happens to our own way of thinking when we leave more tasks to AI? That is what we want to understand better,” says Peter Dalsgaard.
What are we leaving to AI?
Peter Dalsgaard will take particular responsibility for investigating how human thinking is already changing as generative AI becomes part of our everyday lives and working environments.
Among other things, the researchers will examine what happens to our understanding, expertise and responsibility when parts of our cognitive work are delegated to technology.
They will investigate these questions in three areas where AI is already playing an increasingly important role: education, creative industries and scientific research.
In schools, researchers will examine how AI affects learning and critical thinking. In creative industries such as design, architecture and the arts, they will investigate how the technology influences idea development, creativity and professional practices. And in research laboratories, they will explore how AI affects the ways researchers identify patterns, formulate hypotheses and evaluate evidence.
Beyond understanding AI – developing alternatives
The centre will do more than simply observe these developments.
Researchers will also develop and test new ways for people and AI to work together. These could include solutions that make it easier for people to understand and challenge AI's contributions, or technologies that encourage us to develop our own reasoning before asking AI for an answer.
The aim is to generate knowledge, methods and tools that can help us make better decisions about how AI should be integrated into education, creative industries and research.
Ultimately, the research is not only about future AI systems. It is also about which abilities we want people to retain and what role we want humans to play in a world where AI is becoming an increasingly important part of everyday life.
Read more about Thinking With Machines on the Carlsberg Foundation's website
CONTACT:
Professor Peter Dalsgaard, Ph.d
Telefon: +4520652942, +4587162019
E-mail: dalsgaard@cavi.au.dk