19552 GW Mag 26_Final_singles - Flipbook - Page 27
AI TOOLS
Through new platforms and new innovations,
CCAS scholars are putting artificial intelligence
to work in classrooms and clinical settings.
AS A PRACTICING CLINICIAN, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF ART THERAPY JORDAN POTASH HAS SEEN
artificial intelligence (AI) paint near masterpieces.
Through a National Institutes of Health (NIH) pilot program, he’s used the technology to help clients
with disabilities generate expressive images when they can’t manipulate pencils, paintbrushes or cursors
on a computer screen.
In one case, Potash guided a client through AI prompts as they recreated a powerful memory: a slumbering
dog providing comfort during a storm. The AI scenes weren’t perfect. But after some trial and error, the client
hit on an image that moved him. “It conveyed the emotion of the memory,” Potash said.
But not all AI images are therapeutic Picassos, Potash has found. Another client asked AI to present a joyful
scene of a person in a wheelchair petting a horse. The bot brought back a horse—but it had two heads.
“I don’t think AI is going to take over the world if it doesn’t know horse anatomy,” Potash laughed. Like other
art therapy tools, Potash said AI can be a means “to tell your story, express a feeling, imagine a possibility. But it
obviously has its advantages and disadvantages.”
For better or worse, AI is changing the face of American education. In classrooms throughout the country—
and throughout GW—educators are turning to AI platforms for refining lesson plans, highlighting new
perspectives and helping students sharpen writing, research and critical thinking skills.
At CCAS, harnessing the ethical, creative and interdisciplinary use of emerging technologies to accelerate
discovery, enhance education and expand research impact is part of Dean Paul Wahlbeck’s five-year strategic
plan to guide college priorities and actions through 2030. (See story, page 4.) Potash and other CCAS faculty
members are taking the lead in this endeavor through their innovative work in AI.
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