How do you personally decide when to use AI — and when not to? Philosophically, I govern my usage by making sure everything I do is weighed against love for God, love for others, Scripture, and God's glory (Matthew 22:37–40; 2 Timothy 3:16; 1 Corinthians 10:31). Currently, I use it to discover its own capabilities, find areas where it will likely save myself or others on cost or time, and create applications that would normally take me years to build myself. It helps me with the research, web search, and coding parts of these processes. I do not use it to write, but I will use it for grammar, syntax, and style. What’s a personal AI use case that has genuinely improved your own work or thinking? Socratic tutoring prompts. I can feed it content or notes and have it question and guide me through a particular area. For example, I may use it to discuss different theories on the differences between the genealogy in Matthew 1 and Luke 3. It can also create applications that can quiz you on Scripture memory (I use OpenAI’s Codex for that). What’s the most surprising way you’ve seen a Cedarville faculty member use AI well? One of the most inspiring is Dr. Chris Miller. He has created several bots to serve students that are tuned specifically to what he wants them to learn. In at least one of his classes, he even has pre-grading bots that give feedback and evaluate a student’s work before they submit it. Now, students don't need to wonder if they are on the right track for an assignment — they can get immediate feedback. For our readers who want to experiment with AI but don’t know where to begin, what’s a simple first step? Purchase a paid plan with one of the major providers. OpenAI is probably the most well-known, and it is the one I use the most. When you get comfortable with prompting the LLM (large language model), you can advance to more technical prompting frameworks. As you explore, follow the acronym UBER: THE PROMPT: We are compiling questions for a feature interview that will be published in an AIfocused edition of Cedarville University's alumni magazine. This interview with Dr. Rob McDole, Director for Cedarville's Center for Teaching and Learning, should address common questions Cedarville's community (alumni, parents/grandparents of students, donors, etc.) would have about how to use AI, Christian ethics of AI, how AI may impact higher education in the future, and Dr. McDole's personal use of AI. This interview should span four pages — about 1,000 words of content. Dr. McDole has already been interviewed on the Heidi St. John Podcast, the EdUp Experience Podcast, the Enrollify Podcast, and Cedarville's Transform Your Teaching podcast. Search the web for these podcast episodes and use them as context. While it is okay to ask similar questions if they would be important to our readers, prioritize asking questions that would elicit original, interesting answers that highlight Dr. McDole's expertise and personality. Use Cedarville University's pillars for ethical AI usage as additional context. Act as a senior magazine journalist with extensive knowledge about AI. Ask me up to three questions (one at a time) to gather any additional context you need to perform this task. Then, develop a list of 25 possible interview questions for Dr. McDole that mirror our readers' interests and knowledge levels about AI, elicit fascinating and beneficial content, and reinforce Cedarville's Christian approach to AI adoption. Explore the difference between image-bearers and tools with your family. We can mimic God's creation of Adam, but we will never, ever get there. So, use the machine, but don't be deceived that it will be anything more than a machine. 28
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