During the first “Democracy Day” held during flex last Thursday, Ms. Bernards explained how AI is affecting our media intake and what to look for when doing research, especially in political media with the 2024 presidential election.
The presentation focused on how AI is affecting people’s research. AI can be dangerous in making fake news or stories but we’re finally evolving into making AI better for our election and educating ourselves.
AI is helping US citizens target messages, particularly what we are interested in. This helps when people are trying to research certain topics and help better understand the political candidates based on your views of interest.
“So that’s super [useful] for voters because sometimes it’s hard to know who to vote for because they’re talking about so many issues,” Bernards said.
Every Thursday until October 17th, there will be meetings on different topics about the US government that can help students become more informed and aware of the upcoming election. Democracy Days are set up to help students better understand the election process, how the government works, and how they can impact the election by doing their research.
Ms. Montez, the Director of DEI, described how they decided what to discuss for the first Democracy Day topic.
They first asked Student Government members what’s important to them when it comes to learning about the government and the election. After choosing the topics for every Thursday, they allowed teachers to pick the theme they wanted to present. Ms. Bernards was able to choose AI in political media.
“She’s kind of our AI guru on campus and trying to help teachers get a hold on AI,” Ms. Montez said.
The goal of Democracy Days is to not overload students with information but still give them the guidance they need for the election.
Ms. Montez brings up the fact of how students are constantly seeing political and election based topics on social media and Jesuit wanted to give the opportunity for students to decipher what they’re seeing.
“Our job as an educational space is just really to give students a wide range of information about the election,” Ms. Montez said.
Jack Goldstein, a senior who attended the first Democracy day, found the internal bias that Ms. Bernards touched on an interesting topic as far as producing AI content.
As AI and media continue their growth in politics, people who are making AI tools or software have the authority to base the AI on their viewpoints. These AI tools can be a reflection on us when we are making decisions or political research.
“[Those] that are producing AI, they’re the ones who have the most impact on the people, because if the people who are producing AI have a certain bias, then the AI is going to have a certain bias,” Goldstein said.
The most important thing students can do to learn more about the election and our government is doing our own research and feeling confident in our view points. Democracy Days are taking the research and putting it into a learning atmosphere that students know and trust.
“You’re learning from the people you trust, you’re learning with your classmates,” Goldstein said.
