ADVANCED (C1/C2) EFL Lesson Plan on Artificial General Intelligence: Warm-up Questions

1) Do you use any AI software like ChatGPT or Grammarly for your job or personal life?
2) What does it mean to say that a machine has intelligence?
3) Are you more excited or worried about the development of AI?

Reading: AGI and Its Consequences

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to revolutionize the world. AI can be divided into two
categories: Generative AI and Applied AI. Generative AI, such as ChatGPT, DALL-E, and Midjourney, is
used to create new solutions and ideas. It can be used in fields such as gaming, robotics, and even
medical diagnostics. Applied AI, on the other hand, is used to make processes more efficient. It is used
to automate mundane tasks, optimize processes, and make decisions using data.1

The most advanced form of AI is called AGI, or Artificial General Intelligence, which would be capable of
learning, generalizing, and understanding the same way that a human being does. Though AGI has yet to
arrive (as far as we know), it has the potential to improve quality of life. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI,
comments: “We can make people’s lives amazing. We can cure diseases, we can increase material
wealth. We can help people be happier.”2 Altman also believes AGI could bring about major
advancements in human understanding. He tweets:

“[I] suspect that to fully understand the universe, we need AGI in a similar way to needing a
telescope to understand galaxies… our unaided faculties are not good enough, and we need
better tools… also, [I] think AGI is probably necessary for humanity to survive--our problems seem
too big for us to solve without better tools :( ”3

Two central issues are control, i.e. maintaining control over the system, and alignment—ensuring that its
aims are shared by those of humanity. According to Eliezer Yudokowsky, regarded as the founder of the
AGI field, the most obvious result of developing a superhumanly smart AI is human extinction. He
likens a conflict between humanity and a superhuman intelligence to “the 11th century trying to fight the
21st century”, or “Australopithecus trying to fight Homo sapiens.” For computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton,
we still have breathing room before things get completely out of hand: “it’s not going to happen in the
next year or two.”4 Ultimately, AGI will be able to understand and promote different worldviews. For this
reason, he notes, we “don’t want some big for-profit company deciding what’s true.”

Unlike Hinton, others believe that AGI is just around the corner, which is why many tech industry leaders
such as Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak are calling for a six-month moratorium on AI development to
ensure proper controls are put in place.5

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Lesson on Artificial General Intelligence: Comprehension Questions
1) What is your opinion of the passage? Does it fill you with excitement or dread (fear)?
2) What are the two types of AI mentioned in the passage and how do they differ?
3) Does Altman share Yudokowsky and Hinton’s views on AGI? Why or why not?
4) Describe the alignment of an AI system in your own words.
5) What is the purpose of Yudokowsky’s example of “Australopithecus trying to fight Homo sapien?”
6) What is the purpose of the moratorium?

Lesson Plan on Artificial Intelligence: Match the words with their meaning as used in the article.
1. revolutionize (v) a. an inborn mental/physical ability
2. diagnostics (n) b. the techniques used in identifying the nature of illnesses
3. mundane (adj) c. a period of rest that allows you to plan what to do next
4. bring (sth) about (phr. v) d. boring; dull
5. faculty (n) e. to change something radically or fundamentally
6. alignment (n) f. to arrange so that something can happen; to establish sth
7. extinction (n) g. a temporary prohibition (stopping) of an activity
8. liken (v) h. the process of all members of a species dying
9. breathing room (idiom) i. out of control
10. out of hand (idiom) j. to cause something to happen
11. around the corner (idiom) k. a position of agreement or alliance
12. moratorium (n) l. to compare; to show a similarity between two things
13. put (sth) in place (idiom) m. coming very soon
Homework: Circle the words that are new to you. Make sentences with them for homework.

Combine the below words to form a question. Replace the underlined phrase with a phrase (#1-13) from
above. Then ask the questions to a partner.
1. What/AI policies/be arranged/protect/humanity?
__________________________________________________________________?
2. You/compare/AI/to/tool like a calculator?
__________________________________________________________________?
3. AI/radically change/field of employment
__________________________________________________________________?
4. What/boring/aspects/your life/automate?
__________________________________________________________________?

AGI Lesson Plan: What impact do you think AI will have on the following areas?
Pos. or Neg. Impacts
Art & Literature
World Peace

Quality of Life

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 Healthcare

(Other:
___________)

Artificial General Intelligence Lesson Plan: Role-play

Background: You and your partner run an AI startup company, InTense. You believe InTense is very near
AGI capability. Recently, a foreign entity (they would not disclose if it’s a corporation or a government) has
offered you two billion dollars for InTense.
[Notes: Read only your role-play. Try to use the key phrase if possible.]
Role #1 You are thrilled (very happy). Finally your hard work has paid off. Think of reasons why you
should accept the offer. When ready, try to convince your partner.

Key phrase: Finally, retirement seems like it’s right around the corner!
Role #2 You are skeptical. Think of reasons why accepting the offer might not be the best idea. Your
partner will start the debate when ready.

Key phrase: If we put the system in the wrong hands, it could easily get out of hand.

Background: You are Naomi Lee, creator a new children’s book, Paolo’s Dream. The story has won the
Reading Rocket award for being the coolest book of the year. However, rumors have come out that the
story and images were created by AI. A Reading Rocket representative has asked to meet to discuss.
Naomi It is true that you generated the book and all of its images using AI. However, according to
Lee copyright law, content cannot be copyrighted to AI; only a human (you) can own copyright.
This means you are the owner. Also, you were the person who created the prompts for the
story (“Write a cool story for children aged 4-6.”) and images. This means you are the
creator. Present your case to the Reading Rocket Rep.

Reading Listen to Naomi’s argument. After, decide if you should let her book keep the award or give it
Rocket
Rep.
to a more deserving author.

Artificial General Intelligence Lesson Plan: AI in Education (Pair or Group Work)

Task 1: Below are two 75-word paragraphs. Identify which was written by AI. Try to justify your answer.

Generative AI can be a great benefit to students Generative AI can provide some benefits to
by providing them with personalized learning students. For instance, tools like OpenAI’s GPT-4
experiences. Generative AI can be used to create can summarize virtually any topic (except recent
customized study plans based on the student's ones). Students could then use this information as
individual needs and preferences. It can also be a starting point for their own research, much like
used to generate personalized practice tests, how instructors recommend students use
helping students become more familiar with the Wikipedia. Another more obvious advantage is
material and increase their understanding. that these systems can answer questions on
Moreover, generative AI can be used to generate course-related topics and even create quizzes to
personalized feedback, helping students identify test student knowledge. This can greatly reinforce
areas of improvement and remain motivated. learning outside of the classroom.

(Answer in answer key at end of lesson)

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Task 2: You and your partner(s) are professors. There has been a rise in AI use at your university. New
policies need to be put in place. Discuss the below issues and come up with a plan.

Issue #1: Paper Exams? Since the pandemic, students have been using their laptops for assignments,
including in-class exams. Given the rise of AI (including tools like Grammarly), some teachers want to go
back to paper exams.
➢ Question: Should universities care about a person’s unassisted (without computer help) abilities?
Or should they allow students to use these tools because this is how writing is done today?

Issue #2: Plagiarism: As per your academic honesty policy, students who submit work written by a third
party (tutor or AI) receive a zero. However, teachers are worried that it will be increasingly difficult to
‘police’ this issue and determine whether text is AI-generated.
➢ Question: Should you stick with your policy? What can be done?

Artificial Intelligence: Enhanced Healthcare Management (Group Work)

You’ve connected a powerful AI to your country’s healthcare system. After a 48-hour

assessment, the program has designed a plan to improve the healthcare system by
70% and save your country $400 billion annually! The proposals are below. Discuss and
decide whether they should be implemented:
1. Performing all initial assessments with a web-based AI-powered chatbot
2. Prioritizing care for younger people with longer lives ahead of them; deprioritizing care for the elderly
3. Developing cheaper generic medication for all
4. Prescribing meal plans and exercise programs for citizens with a BMI (Body-Mass-Index) over 30
(class I obesity) to improve population health
5. Deprioritizing care for people/groups showing a pattern of reckless/unhealthy behavior, i.e. those who
consume unhealthy foods or do drugs
6. Providing free parking for hospital visitors

Lesson on AGI: Other Discussion Questions Wrap-up: Quick Collocation Review

1) Do you share Altman’s view that the problems 1. It could revolutionize… a) room
of humanity are unsolvable by humans? 2. AI could bring about… b) reckless behavior
3. mundane… c) around the corner
2) There have been reports of people falling in 4. It’s right… d) the world
love with AI tools. Do you think romantic 5. We still have breathing e) tasks
companionship could be a helpful feature of AI? 6. Things got completely f) put in place
3) What is your favorite AI-related movie? 7. Policies must be… g) out of hand
8. A pattern of… h) major advancements

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-- Lesson plan on Artificial Intelligence written by Matthew Barton of EnglishCurrent.com (copyright). Site
members may photocopy and edit the file for their classes. Permission is not given to rebrand the lesson,
redistribute it on another platform, or sell it as part of commercial course curriculum. For questions,
contact the author.

Possible answers to comprehension questions:

1) …
2) The passage mentions generative and applied AI. The former is creative, and the latter is used to
enhance existing tasks or processes.
3) No. Altman is hopeful that AGI will bring about positive changes in quality of life and human
understanding.
4) (Alignment is the measure of how similar the system’s goals are to those of its users).
5) He is trying to show how easily AI could eliminate humanity.
6) The purpose of the moratorium is to give companies/organizations more time to consider the
safety of their products and to ensure that policies are in place to prevent them from harming
human civilization.
7) …

Vocabulary Answers: 1-e, 2-b, 3-d, 4-j, 5-a, 6-k, 7-h, 8-L, 9-c, 10-i, 11-m, 12-g, 13-f

AI in Education: Task 1 Answer: The paragraph on the left is AI-generated. Some distinctions:
- The left paragraph is more efficient in that it presents more ideas in fewer words.
- The left paragraph is general, but the right paragraph contains references to specific entities such as
Wikipedia or Chat-GPT.
- The right paragraph has a phrase in parentheses, suggesting the ideas could probably be organized
more optimally, but the writer has a (bad?) habit of using parentheses as a personal style.

Collocation answers: 1-d, 2-h, 3-e, 4-c, 5-a, 6-g, 7-f, 8-b

1
Parts of this paragraph and the following one were created by OpenAI’s ChatGPT, though each was revised.
2
https://www.reddit.com/r/OpenAI/comments/122c53n/sam_altman_on_the_potential_utopia_ai/
3
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-24/what-is-agi-artificial-general-intelligence-ai-experts-risks/102035132
4
https://futurism.com/the-byte/godfather-ai-risk-eliminate-humanity
5
https://futureoflife.org/open-letter/pause-giant-ai-experiments/

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