table of undergraduate researchers
Analyzing the Language of AI
Undergraduate 研究ers examine media coverage of Artificial Intelligence

By the time you finish reading this story, 这些词会影响你对人工智能的看法.

我们对人工智能(AI)的交流方式会影响我们对它的看法. But how can we quantify the effect that one written article has? How about 1,000 articles? And here’s the trippy part: Is AI affecting its own discussion? These are perfect questions for 澳门金沙线上赌博官网 University 沟通 professor 蜀葵属植物Delwiche在他的实验室里 undergraduate researchers 是否正在努力分析围绕着这个高科技话题的语言——既有积极的,也有消极的特征.

“这是一个计算机科学和通信交叉的尖端实验室. 我们正在分析强大的大型语言模型对人工智能媒体报道的影响,” 说 researcher Matvei 波波夫 ’25, a 计算机科学 St专业. Petersburg, Russia. “What is affecting the media coverage of AI? How do people talk about it? What is their sentiment 和 how does the public opinion shift over time? 我们都注定要失败吗??”

不是要让你悬着——因为最后一个问题还没有定论——但好消息是,波波夫和他的同学们正在对其他问题进行一些令人印象深刻的研究, 得益于高水平的师资支持和三位一体的跨学科合作.

传播学教授蜀葵属植物Delwiche(中)领导着一个学生研究实验室,致力于研究围绕人工智能的媒体语言.

波波夫, 和 the rest of Delwiche’s team, 主要关注一种称为大型语言模型辅助内容分析的技术. That’s “LACA” for short.

This is quantitative 沟通s research that, 简单来说, 统计事件发生的次数,例如使用单词或短语等事件, or the emergence of larger patterns of language. Before the rise of AI, Delwiche, Ph.D., 说, 定量内容分析对研究人员来说是一项“有用但艰苦”的任务, 和, 引导, “it does not scale well in a world of large data sets.“可是现在, current research relies on large language models (LLMs), 哪些是可以处理和分类语言的人工神经网络(一种人工智能).

但是现在,像波波夫这样的研究人员,以及包括27岁的米特曼在内的队友 沟通 来自达拉斯的计算机科学专业的25岁的学生Gayatri Rajamony 法律系的跟踪, 有机会接触到一个新的技术工具世界,可以迅速加快这类研究的速度和范围.

这学期, 波波夫和Delwiche团队的其他成员正忙于编写大量提到人工智能的新闻文章——这是该项目的一部分,在很大程度上依赖于实验室里的交流学生. 该团队的下一步是开发一种名为内容分析代码本的工具, 这是一个精细的框架,用于筛选和分类这些提到的人工智能是消极的还是积极的.

Computer Science majors Matvei 波波夫 ' 25(左)和Gayatri Rajamony ' 25(中)喜欢探索计算机科学如何与其他学科相互作用.

最终, 该小组将使用各种法学硕士结合这个代码本(和他们的文章数据集)来寻找围绕人工智能的语言模式. Each week, the group huddles into a snug conference room deep in 澳门金沙线上赌博官网’s Richardson Communications Center, discussing research goals 和 assigning tasks.

该实验室依靠团队合作:计算机科学专业的学生与通信专业的学生分享他们不断增长的编码和编程知识, who in turn lend their burgeoning expertise in media analysis 和 language. 

“尝试将计算机科学应用于通信是非常具有挑战性的,但也是有益的.

如果我试图训练一个机器学习模型来理解交流,而我自己却不理解它, it is likely not going to end well,波波夫解释道. “Without the comm majors there, it would take me a year 和 a half, 可能, to underst和 some of these concepts.”

Being part of the lab is a distinctly tech-focused experience, but it’s one that revolves around human connections across disciplines, 说Mittman, 作为一名通信专业的学生,帮助团队收集和清理数据.

“有机会从多个角度看待事物让我对学习感到兴奋,米特曼说. 

对于Rajamony, who is planning to pursue a career in patent or copyright law, 这种跨学科的研究正是一开始让澳门金沙线上赌博官网这样的文理学院如此吸引人的实践机会.

“I knew pretty much immediately that I wanted a smaller liberal arts college, a place that valued the interdisciplinary nature of my interests. 看到别人对计算机科学的看法总是很好的, such as having a 沟通 perspective,拉贾蒙尼说. “作为一名想要做出道德决定的计算机科学专业学生,这对我来说真的很有用.”

One of the biggest links for these students, across all their different disciplines 和 interests, has been the chance to work with a driven, dedicated faculty member like Delwiche.\

27岁的迈洛·米特曼(Mylo Mittman)来自达拉斯,主修传媒专业,他很喜欢和德尔维奇一起工作的机会.

Mittman, who found the lab after taking a previous Delwiche course on AI, loves the professor’s openness to collaboration, 声明, “She’s very accessible, 和 when it comes to the lab, she’s willing to talk to everybody 和 hear everybody out. 她会说, ‘If you have an idea, 让我知道, 我们会和实验室的其他人一起组织它,看看它能不能融入我们更大的项目.’”

On the horizon for the group? 继续试验(和训练)一系列llm,这些llm可以执行团队需要的操作,开始分析他们收集的所有数据.

“We’re basically 培训 (these LLMs) to perform text analysis, which can help us identify the spectrum of sentiment about AI over time,波波夫说. “The better we can fine-tune 和 customize these models, the closer we will get to our desired analysis; that’s definitely been kind of a challenge, but I think we are very close to solving it.”

Rajamony, 谁把她的时间花在自动化过程上,以期“喂养”这些模型,从而加快它的速度, 他说,目前的挑战仍然是弄清楚该集团如何采用这种模式,并对其进行调整,使其更好地发挥我们的价值. 

的行为, 培训, feeding—if we’re examining the group’s language around AI, Mittman说, you might notice a pattern developing already.

“My initial impression of AI is that yes, 我觉得很酷, but it’s still kind of like a baby,米特曼解释道. “We are teaching it, 我们正在调整它, 和 we are basically helping the baby learn, for lack of a better term. That’s what I think is really cool about this project, too: that we’ll be able to contribute something meaningful to... the growth of this field.”

And as for the fields of 计算机科学 和 沟通, 这个项目是另一个完美的例子,说明澳门金沙线上赌博官网的增长是如何在共同发展的情况下实现的.

“我很高兴这个实验室有这么多不同背景和经历的人,波波夫说, “因为每个人都可以解决不同的问题,并通过合作创造出一些非常酷的想法. 当不同的专业可以结合在一起解决大问题时,那真是太迷人了.”

对米特曼来说,这种类型的研究不仅仅是对一项研究进行分析.

“I’m in my third semester, 和 it’s honestly amazing to me that if things go right in this lab, which I bet they will, 我可能会成为一个发表论文的团队的一员,我帮助这个项目在这样一个发展中的领域的研究中迈出了下一步, 这是一个新的领域, such a field that some people are excited about but scared of,米特曼说. “I think one of the coolest things about what we’re doing is that hopefully, 在某种程度上, we’ll have a h和 in shaping public perception of this emerging technology.”

 

 

耶利米·格拉赫是澳门金沙赌城线上游戏战略传播与营销的品牌记者.

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