AI <> Academia
What might emerge from ASU's pioneering partnership with OpenAI?
Hej, friends - greetings from sunny Copenhagen 👋
This week, Arizona State University (ASU) announced that it has partnered with OpenAI.
Starting next month, ASU full have access to ChatGPT Enterprise, the most advanced and “data protected” version of OpenAI's generative AI model, GPT-4.
The goal of the collaboration, which is the first of its kind, is to integrate ChatGPT into various aspects of the university's operations, including teaching, research, and administrative processes in order to enhancing student success improve administrative efficiency.
ASU faculty and staff are invited to submit ideas for how ChatGPT should be tested, which got me thinking: what sorts of experiments are likely to come out of this partnership? And what might we learn?
Here are a few ideas (aka the things I’d ask for, if I was AU faculty).
What would you ask to test, and why?
Phil 👋
Phil’s Wish List #1: 10X Needs Analysis
ChatGPT assists in analysing existing, historic data about student achievement (and under achievement) and identifies trends in the conditions which optimise for success for different student profiles.
Hypothesis: using AI it will be possible to optimise the learning pathway and overall student of experience of every learner.
Potential Impact: increased retention of “at risk” students, and improved equity of achievement for all students.
Phil’s Wish List #2: Smart Curriculum Development
ChatGPT assists in creating and updating course curricula, based on both student data and emerging domain and pedagogical research on the topic.
Output: using AI it will be possible to review course content and make data-informed automate recommendations based on latest pedagogical and domain-specific research
Potential Impact: increased dynamism and relevance in course content and reduced administrative lift for academics.
Phil’s Wish List #3: Virtual Teaching Assistants
GPT technology will enable Professors to “reproduce themselves”, empowering them to providing “always on” support and feedback at infinite scale.
Hypothesis: using AI it will be possible to scale the domain expertise and pastoral support of professors in a way that is both meaningful and helpful to students.
Impact: ability to deliver world-class-quality education at near-infinite scale.
Phil’s Wish List #4: Augmented Research Grant Writing
Use ChatGPT to identify grant opportunities and draft research grant proposals based on the defined requirements. This could include using ChatGPT to identify potential research collaborators based on analyses of publications and emerging research globally.
Hypothesis: AI will enhance both the quality and efficiency of grant writing.
Impact: increase in the success rate of grant proposals and number of active research projects.
Phil’s Wish List #5: Automated Domain Knowledge Updates
Use ChatGPT and plugins like Consensus to rapidly conduct and update literature reviews, identify blindspots and update domain knowledge.
Hypothesis: AI will make the process of staying up to date with research relevant to one’s domain faster and better.
Impact: increased dynamism and relevance in institutional knowledge and course content.