Lower Austria experts urge caution and curiosity on AI

Artificial intelligence can help with everyday tasks, but users should check its answers and take care with sensitive information, two experts told listeners on ORF’s Radio Lower Austria on Monday. ORF reported that the discussion opened a week-long focus on AI in Lower Austria.

Innovation researcher Lukas Zenk of Danube University Krems and Marlies Temper, head of the Data Intelligence degree programme at the University of Applied Sciences in St. Pölten, answered listeners’ questions during a two-hour broadcast.

Asked whether AI-generated information could be trusted, Temper warned against relying on it completely. “Reading up on what the AI explains and thinking about it is always essential,” she said.

Zenk advised listeners to be cautious about sharing personal information. Questions about recipes or holiday plans were generally fine, he said, but people should take care with medical topics, sensitive personal data and company information. He added that data was not publicly accessible for every person.

The discussion also covered whether AI could replace jobs. Some listeners said their work could never be replaced, while others described AI as a tool that would change working life and probably cost some jobs, with other roles likely to emerge. Zenk said some professions would no longer exist in their current form, as had happened repeatedly over the past centuries.

AI is also widely used by young people for schoolwork. A recent survey by tutoring provider LernQuadrat found that almost all pupils in the lower cycle of academic secondary schools and in middle schools use it for school.

One listener worried that students might lose basic skills such as mental arithmetic and summarising texts. Temper said pupils still needed to learn essential skills such as reading, writing and mathematics. At the same time, AI could help students understand difficult material by answering specific questions or explaining ideas in simpler language, she said.

The experts recommended approaching AI with curiosity while questioning its answers. Temper said schools, universities and businesses all needed to improve understanding of where the technology could be useful. Zenk said organisations had so far used only a fraction of AI’s potential and would need to learn how to apply it effectively.