It’s the end of the semester for LSUS, and the LSUS debate team is getting ready for the next round of tournaments.
AJ Edwards is the Debate Director at LSU Shreveport, as well as a member of the Governing Board of the International Public Debate Association, or the IPDA. Edwards coaches LSUS’ award-winning debate team, and has been involved in debate for 17 years. He’s seen significant changes in the use of the internet in the debate circuit.
“So, I am older than Google,” he says. “Whenever I first started in high school, there was internet access and you could print out a bunch of evidence and materials and things of that nature, but you didn’t really have that at tournaments. It was very, very slow and the amount of information was much smaller than it is now.”
Edwards has seen the expansion of the internet and how debaters can use it to their advantage. He says he’s noticed how much debaters rely on the internet today.
“Now, it’s… everybody immediately goes to the computer to try to see what evidence they can find right off the bat,” Edwards says. “There’s very little, kind of, forethought about what’s going to happen and what the resolution is asking without consulting the internet.”
Edwards says that recently, talks of AI use in debate tournaments have increased.
“But, it is a pretty hot-bed topic within the community as to… what would be the effects? Can we use it? Should we use it? Can we continue to fight to not use it?” Edwards says.
According to Edwards, AI use in debate, especially in research and preparation, is unavoidable. While the rules are still up in the air, a lot of IPDA teams are being careful with their usage.
“The current version of AI… the jury is still out on it. But, we better figure out how to embrace it because it’s not going anywhere,” he says. “The same way the calculator didn’t go anywhere, the same way the internet hasn’t gone anywhere.”
Edwards says he thinks AI use won’t be harmful to debaters. He says it shouldn’t take away any of the benefits of debating, but it will change how debaters conduct their research, develop good talking points, and come up with good sources.
“It just shifts the way that everything happens,” Edwards says. “It'll allow our students different ways to learn how to use those AI models, and how to still persuasively speak and sell argumentation and convince people that their arguments are the correct way.”
While debaters and teams figure out their way through AI use in tournaments, Edwards is discovering how to use it in his classrooms at LSUS.
In addition to debate, Edwards teaches in the humanities and communications department. He also thinks that AI is unavoidable in a classroom. So, in his public speaking classes, he is learning how to adapt to students using AI to make speeches. One way his students are allowed to use AI is in coming up with topics for speeches.
“Because a lot of times students just have a hard time figuring out what it is they want to talk about,” he says.
Edwards says that while he is comfortable with his students using AI to develop ideas, he still wants students to do the researching and structuring of the projects by themselves.
“You still have to get up there and deliver the speech and AI can’t do that for you,” Edwards says.
In his opinion, teaching students how to responsibly use AI in a class is the best way to adapt to AI use. He says that, if anything, his students are learning to navigate a world where artificial intelligence growth is inevitable.
“You know, whenever the calculator was going to ruin everybody’s ability to do math, and we were all going to be too dependent on the calculators. And, you can’t use them in class because you won’t always have a calculator on you. And, as I’m sitting here talking to you I’m holding one in my hand” he says. “At bare minimum it’s another thing that they’re getting out of the class.”
With Red River Radio News, this is Alaina Atnip.