Penn State Shenango Assistant Teaching Professor of Communication Tiffany Petricini attended the National Communication Association (NCA) Conference in Washington D.C. where she shared research findings related to artificial intelligence.
SHARON, Pa. — Penn State Shenango Assistant Teaching Professor of Communication Tiffany Petricini presented her research on artificial intelligence at the National Communication Association (NCA) Convention in Washington D.C. in November.
Petricini’s research focuses on media ecology, which studies the intersections of communication technologies and culture, and emphasizes the fact that artificial intelligence (AI) is a type of media. At NCA, she presented findings from her paper "Artificial Intelligence and Artificial Relationships or Augmented Intelligence and Augmented Relationships? The Case for Correcting the Artificial Misnomer."
The NCA serves communication scholars and educators and promotes the importance of communication in public and private life, and the use of knowledge about communication to solve human problems.
Petricini holds several administrative roles at Penn State related to AI, first and foremost as the co-chair of the Joint Standing Committee on the Effective and Responsible Uses of Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education Instruction, which serves all of Penn State. She also leads Penn State’s Artificial Intelligence Community of Practice and has created a research team to investigate AI and its uses and perceptions by faculty and students.
Additionally, Petricini is serving as an editor of an upcoming special issue of the international journal Explorations in Media Ecology focusing on AI. Her other recently published topics focus AI and cognition, as well as AI and its uses in a higher education setting.
