Mindfulness & Learning with AI
April is AI Month at Penn! Check out the calendar for a full list of events across campus.
This event is a forum that will allow faculty, students, and staff to explore the potential for contemplative practices to maximize benefits and minimize harms associated with using AI in higher education settings. Participants are invited to discuss how integrating contemplative practices in higher education can help support learning as AI becomes increasingly integrated into the lives of students and faculty. How does AI use help and harm learning, and how can the practice of mindfulness boost benefit and mitigate harm? Meditation trains people to cultivate "meta-awareness," a skill that is likely to become increasingly important as some thinking tasks are shifted to AI assistants. It can also strengthen human qualities like empathy, compassion, and morality, as well as support ethical behavior. Mindfulness cultivates a kind of embodied wisdom unique to humans that technological advances are unlikely to replicate in the foreseeable future.
We will interrogate the ways that mindfulness could help us avoid some of the possible pitfalls of AI use (e.g., "de-skilling," "brain rot") while safeguarding important human qualities like emotional intelligence, social engagement, and relationship-building as we outsource some cognitive tasks to AI. Can mindfulness strengthen critical thinking, creativity, and innovation? How do contemplative practices allow us to balance thinking with awareness? How can the cultivation of awareness and presence help us to apply and develop AI in beneficial ways? Participants will have the opportunity to experience short mindfulness practices.
Sponsored by:
Speakers
Elizabeth Mackenzie
Dr. Mackenzie’s areas of expertise include contemplative sciences, mindfulness meditation, mind-body medicine, and healthy development. She was a Research Assistant Professor in the division of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Medicine, where she conducted research on mental health and spirituality. Following that, she held the position of Lecturer in the Critical Writing Program, School of Arts and Sciences, teaching courses in humanistic and integrative medicine with a focus on learning writing skills. Currently, her main areas of academic interest are contemplative education and mindfulness meditation. With colleagues from Penn GSE, Dr. Mackenzie has conducted pilot evaluations of mindfulness-based teacher training as well as a qualitative study of contemplative practices in higher education. Dr. Mackenzie is a certified to teach mindfulness by the Mindfulness Institute for Emerging Adults (MIEA).
Deven Patel
Deven M. Patel is a professor in the School of Arts and Sciences at Penn, where he teaches courses on classical Indian literature, philosophy, and mythology. He also lectures on contemplative theories and their practice traditions. He has published on Sanskrit literature and on the literary history, linguistics, and poetics of ancient, medieval, and modern.
Jill Katz
Jill Katz is SNF Paideia’s Communications Director. She leads the development of multichannel strategies to drive engagement and raise visibility of SNF Paideia’s full program. She oversees print and digital communications, brand strategy, design, and media relations.
Katz previously served as Director of Marketing and Communications at Penn’s Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) and Marketing Manager at the Jewish Museum in New York while also focusing on museum accessibility initiatives there and at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Her nearly 20 years of communications experience at the University of Pennsylvania, previous experience as an arts educator, and as a writer and researcher for ARTnews, have informed her current experiences.
Katz holds an MA in art education from New York University and a BA in English and art from Syracuse University, and has taken coursework at the International Center of Photography in New York. She holds certificates in meditation, sound therapy, and mindful leadership training. She is a photographer whose work explores the complexities of place through landscapes that are connected to identity and home.