On Monday, September 21, the Mercersburg community gathered for the annual Schaff Lecture on Ethics and Morals. Associate Professor of Digital Humanities at University College London Dr. Kaitlyn Regehr delivered a presentation on the ethical and general uses of artificial intelligence (AI), focusing on the social impacts of AI algorithms, especially on young adults. She serves as a consultant to members of Parliament, the Metropolitan Police, and the Scottish Government on online safety, while also appearing as a frequent guest on news platforms like CNN, BBC, and USA Today.
Inviting Regehr on campus was intentional. Burgin Center Director of Operations Jessica Doubell said, “She is going to discuss… what it means to be a smartphone addicted teenager, which is actually kind of apropos with our new cell phone policy.”
Doubell further explained the choice: “The Schaff Lecture specifically is to bring in a speaker who talks about the fundamental human values, the principles that direct a person’s decisions and actions. So the program collaboration group got together, picked out different people we thought would work well for the lecture, and ultimately chose Dr. Regehr.”
On youth digital safety, Regehr said to the audience, “I’m really interested in how technology can become a crutch, removing young people’s agency and future ability to exist without it. And what I really want to do is empower young people to take greater control over those processes. That’s what my work is all about: How do we take back control over this technologically facilitated world? ”
Regehr went on to explain how her personal upbringing shaped her interest in dedicating herself to the field of digital humanities and informational studies, “My mother was the provost of the University of Toronto, and my grandparents were at universities. It’s the family business. But I’m really kind of moving that form of scholarship into the 21st century. So I feel like I’m taking on the family business but kind of modernizing it by looking at tech.”
On the matter of AI in a classroom environment, Regehr said, “We need to really pull apart whether AI is being used as a support to learning, which I don’t think is a good thing. We need to have friction built into our learning. It’s how we learn. But if we teach critical understandings about how AI works and we can critically analyze it, that is true education.”
After the lecture, some students related to Regehr’s message on the addictive nature of technology and AI in their lives. Darcy Quinn ’29 said, “The biggest takeaway I got from the lecture would probably be the algorithm loop that people might get stuck in while scrolling on social media, so trying to learn a tutorial for a set of things but then the algorithm puts you in a position where you might be attracted into doing something that you’re not supposed to be doing in the first place.”
Others reacted to the implications of AI in their own education. Ray Huang ’29 said, “The way she talked about how we use AI definitely gave me a little bit better of an idea of how to check myself, because I was very hesitant to use AI last year and I didn’t use it at all this year. I’m starting to use it a little bit more to try and help my learning.”
Ultimately, students reflected on the lecture’s lessons and how Regehr’s message will influence them going forward. Huang summarized, “I think AI is a double-sided sword. Not only can it provide you with a lot of inspiration and ideas, but it can also block and negatively impact your cognitive thinking abilities.”