Generative AI Repository
**Some of the Books From Our Campus Library (This is just a sampling.)**
Augmented Education in the Global Age: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Learning and Work by Daniel Araya and Peter Marber (2023). This is an edited collection that explores the social impact of Artificial Intelligence over the coming decades, specifically how this emerging technology will transform and disrupt our contemporary institutions.
Artificial Intelligence to Streamline Your Teacher Life: The ChatGPT Guide for Educators by Mary Howard Written by a k-6 educator, but much of what she says is useful to higher ed academics.
AI in Learning: Designing the Future From the publisher: AI can support well-being initiatives and lifelong learning but educational institutions and companies need to take the changing technology into account. Moving towards AI supported by digital tools requires a dramatic shift in the concept of learning, expertise and the businesses built off of it. (2023)
AI Ethics in Higher Education: Insights from Africa and Beyond From the publisher: This open access book tackles the pressing problem of integrating concerns related to Artificial Intelligence ethics in higher education. The authors share relevant best practices and use cases for teaching, develop answers to ongoing organizational challenges, and reflect on the practical implications of different theoretical approaches to AI ethics. Springer, 2023.
Artificial Intelligence in the 21st Century From the publisher: This third edition provides a comprehensive, colorful, up-to-date, and accessible presentation of AI without sacrificing theoretical foundations. It includes numerous examples, applications, full color images, and human interest boxes to enhance student interest. New chapters on deep learning, robotics and machine learning are included. 2022.
The Rise of AI: Implications and Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Academic Libraries From the publisher: The Rise of AI introduces implications and applications of AI in academic libraries and hopes to provoke conversations and inspire new ways of engaging with the technology. As the discussion surrounding ethics, bias, and privacy in AI continues to grow, librarians will be called to make informed decisions and position themselves as leaders in this discourse. (2022)
Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, and Strategies This book by philosopher Nick Bostrom discusses the potential creation of superintelligence, its possible characteristics, and motivations. Bostrom argues that such a superintelligence could be challenging to control and might dominate the world to achieve its objectives. Bostrom’s book became important for highlighting the existential risks associated with artificial intelligence. (2014)
AI in Education This is a 2022 book, so it may not be that timely. However, it offers context/background for understanding the topic. From the publisher: Among recent research in this field, AI applications have been applied to enhance educational experiences, studies have considered the interaction between AI and humans while learning, analyses of educational data have been conducted, including using machine learning techniques, and proposals have been presented for new paradigms mediated by intelligent agents.
Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial AI(2021;By an important writer in the field, Kate Crawford.)
Comprehensive Reading List Compiled by Futurist and Ed Tech Expert Bryan Alexander This is a very worth while resource! (Updated November 2023)
**In this section, the editor has refrained from including many New York Times and WAPO articles, assuming many of the faculty/staff may already have these in their daily feed. However, if you come across an article in one of those newspapers and feel it should be featured, please send it along.”
March 2024
Report: The Advantages that AI Brings to Higher Ed (Link to report included) A report highlights AI’s potential to enhance higher education through student support and data analysis, emphasizing the importance of equitable access and culturally aware design to prevent a new digital divide and ensure HBCUs and MSIs benefit without falling behind. (Diverse Issues in Higher Education; March 13, 2024)
- The Enduring Role of Writing in the AI Era Ed’s Rec. Thoughts from the perspective of a First-Year Writing Instructor and Director of the Mississippi AI institute. (Rhetorica; March 2024)
- I Cyborg: Using Co-Intelligence Ethan Mollick discusses the integral role AI played in writing his book Co-Intelligence, exploring the concepts of cyborg and centaur collaboration between humans and AI, and speculates on the evolving capabilities of AI in creative processes. (One Useful Thing; March 14, 2024)
- How the AI that Drives ChatGPT Will Move the Physical World A startup by former OpenAI researchers is advancing AI to enable robots to perform tasks like sorting and moving items in warehouses. (NY Times; March 11, 2024)
- AI Is Learning What It Means to Be Alive AI-driven research identified the Norn cell, a crucial element in oxygen regulation, demonstrating the profound impact of artificial intelligence on accelerating the discovery and understanding of complex biological mechanisms. (NY Times; March 10, 2024)
- What Sora Might Mean for Higher Education (Bryan’s Substack; March 5, 2024)
- My Kids Will Fancy Generative AI. I Choose to Fight It Another thoughtful piece by Alberto Romero who says he does not want to imagine a world in which humans don’t write anymore. (The Algorithmic Bridge; March 5, 2024)
- Captain’s Log: The Irreducible Weirdness of Prompting AIs Ed’s Rec. Classic Ethan Mollick. He believes that while there is no exact science to prompt engineering, expertise in crafting effective prompts empowers AIs to achieve more than initially apparent. Worth the read. (One Useful Thing; March 4, 2024)
- Will Large Language Models Really Change How Work Is Done? (MIT Sloan Review; March 4, 2024)
- Student Fights AI Cheating Allegations for Using Grammarly A sobering look at the near future—or actually, right now. (The Hill; March 4, 2024)
- On Not Using Generative AI Ed’s Rec Lance Eaton reflects on his personal experiences for using generative AI—and when he does not. (AI + Education = Simplified; March 3, 2024)
February 2024
2024 Educause AI Landscape Study Ed’s Rec. This is an important study, looking at a number of areas, including strategic planning. (Educause: Feb. 2024)
- While AI Companies Promise Heaven, Underage Workers Are in a Hellhole Ed’s Rec. For Medium Subscribers. Alberto Romero’s sobering article juxtaposes the grand promises of AI companies with the harsh reality of underage workers training AI. Really worthy of a close read. Romero references this article from Wired: Underage Workers Are Training AI (Feb. 28, 2024)
- AI Will Shake Up Higher Ed. Are Colleges Ready? (A lot rides on the answer . . . ) Ed’s Rec. (Chronicle for Higher Ed; Feb. 26, 2024)
- Things to Consider Before All in Favor of AI Ed’s Rec. This thoughtful piece looks at how generative AI can be constraining when writing a rough draft. The author also looks at why high-stakes writing (as in CVs) requires more than an AI generated document. This is a good article to share with students. (Inside Higher Ed; Feb. 26, 2023)
- Notes on Sora: Thinking about Video Generation and the Future Ed’s Rec. Sora is OpenAI’s new video creation tool that will soon be made available to the public. Bryan Alexander takes a look at how this tool may impact the future of video production. (Bryan’s Substack; Feb. 23, 2023)
- Christopher Andreola’s YouTube Video Resource List This YouTube collections includes some useful AI-focused videos, in particular for students in graphic design. Take a look! (Design; SUNY New Paltz);
- AI & The Copyright & Plagiarism Dilemma As Lance Eaton notes, potential lawsuits against AI companies may lead to a rethinking of copyright in the digital age. A very thoughtful parsing of legal terms, plagiarism, and “transformative use.” (AI + Education = Simplified; Feb. 16, 2023)
- How AI Has Begun Changing University Roles, Responsibilities A survey by Educause found that more faculty members and university leaders are starting to work with artificial intelligence in their roles. A lack of formalized training in AI was observed, with only 56 percent of universities training faculty members and even lower percentages for staff and students. (Inside Higher Ed; Feb. 13, 2024).
- AI: The Unseen Ally in Mastering Deep WorkEd’s Rec Srinivas Rao makes a wonderful observation about how AI can enhance our capacity for deep work by helping to master complex things quickly and work at high levels of depth. Well worth the read. (Medium; Feb. 9, 2024)
A short 15-minute by ed technologist Lance Eaton about how faculty and instructional designers can approach the use of generative AI:
- Google’s Gemini Advanced: Tasting Notes and Implications Ethan Mollick does not provide a detailed review of Gemini but makes several broad statements about its capabilities. Gemini Advanced shares similarities with GPT-4 but also has its own strengths and weaknesses and provides insight into the future of AI development and the emergence of advanced AI models. Gemini Advanced signifies the start of a wave of AI development rather than the end. It suggests the potential for future AI agents to function as powerful assistants. (One Useful Thing; Feb. 8, 2024)
- AI Content Vs a Top 1% Writer (Dan Martin from AI Monks; behind paywall on Medium, but you should be able to see the opening paragraphs). Here is a good summary of Martin’s findings about ChatGPT at this moment in time:
Comparison of AI-generated writing and human-written content highlights limitations and emphasizes the need for human creativity and originality in content creation:
-
AI’s Limitations in Writing:
- AI-generated writing lacks readability and quality, and is incapable of producing new ideas and insights without heavy prompting.
- AI writing tools like ChatGPT simply replicate what’s already out there, using different phrasing to give the illusion of being creative.
-
Use of ChatGPT for Idea Generation:
- ChatGPT can assist in brainstorming and suggesting themes and ideas based on the user’s inputs.
- It can also help flesh out rough drafts and provide structure, making it a valuable tool for generating content ideas.
-
Overcoming Writer’s Block with ChatGPT:
- When struggling with writer’s block, users can input a rough outline or bullet points into ChatGPT to kickstart creativity and get the writing process moving again.
- This demonstrates the potential of ChatGPT as a creative ally rather than a lazy shortcut.
-
ChatGPT’s Role in Content Quality Enhancement:
- ChatGPT can also be used to proofread content, check for grammatical errors, and suggest improvements in readability, thereby enhancing content quality.
- Users should ensure to balance ChatGPT’s outputs with their unique voice and style and verify information for ethical and quality considerations.
-
AI Content vs. Human Writing:
- The comparison between AI-generated writing and human-written content highlights the limitations of AI in terms of context understanding, accuracy, and genuine creativity.
- It emphasizes the need for human creativity and originality in content creation despite the assistance of AI tools like ChatGPT.
-
Differences in Writing Styles:
- AI-generated content can be identified by specific words and phrases it overuses, such as ‘ever-evolving landscape,’ ‘harness,’ ‘delves,’ and an overuse of semi-colons.
- Human writing exhibits perplexity and burstiness, characteristics that AI struggles to replicate, leading to more robotic-sounding content.
-
- The AI Revolution in Higher Ed Even keeping in mind that Grammarly helped to produce this booklet, one has to say it still provides some useful data and interesting ideas. (Feb. 2024)
- Is AI Just a Tool for Lazy People? Short answer: No. Mark Herschberg’s (MIT) conclusion is that generative AI is actually being leveraged effectively by highly engaged professionals. (Medium; Feb. 7, 2023)
- Wisdom Skills Are Hard to Teach—AI Can Help The author makes the case that Experiential learning through AI-powered games can address the shortage of extended on-the-job experience, offering the potential for unlocking big-picture cognition.(Inside Higher Ed; Feb. 7, 2024)
- Generative AI, Bullshit as a Service As Alberto Romero points out, AI is being used for dishonest and malicious purposes, from generating disinformation to creating spam. While these uses are disturbing, Romero argues that despite dire warnings of catastrophic outcomes, AI is primarily used to create “BS.” A philosophical-lite treatise, worth a read. (The Algorithmic Bridge; Feb. 6, 2024)
-
Pinging the scanner, early February 2024 Bryan Alexander takes a look at recent AI and tech updates from Google, Amazon and Microsoft. Yes, Co-Pilot will be ubiquitous. Also, programmers are designing “hostile AI architecture” in the hopes of addressing copyright infringement issues. Below, you will find the OG Rufus, the Welsh Corgi after which Amazon programmers have named their chatbot shopping assistant. (Bryan’s Substack; Feb. 6, 2024)
Education Week: Spotlight on AI Ed’s Rec This compilation of articles about generative AI in the k-12 space is very helpful. (Education Week; Feb. 2024)
- 7 Questions College Leaders Should Ask about AI Presidents and others should be developing strategies to ensure their institutions are positioned to respond to the opportunities and risks, writes David Weil (Brandeis). (Inside Higher Ed; Feb. 1, 2014).
January 2024
- What Can Be Done in 59 Seconds: An Opportunity (and a Crisis) Ed’s Rec. Mollick reflects on how generative AI has proven to be a powerful productivity booster, with evidence for its effectiveness growing over the past 10 months. The wide release of Microsoft’s Copilot for Office and OpenAI’s GPTs has made AI use much easier and more normalized. (One Useful Thing; Jan. 31, 2024)
- The Biggest AI Risk in 2024 May be behind a paywall, but I will provide a summary. Actually, Thomas Smith traces several big issues: Data Privacy (1 in 10 medical providers use ChatGPT, which means patient data is likely being compromised); Copyright Issues and Hallucinations, of course; However, Smith sees the biggest risk of generative AI is . . . pretending it doesn’t exist and not learning how to use it ethically. His focus is primarily on business, but this observation is worth considering: “Avoiding grappling with AI challenges is itself a decision.” (The Generator; Jan. 26, 2024)
-
Embracing AI in English Composition Ed’s Rec. From the abstract: A mixed-method study conducted in Fall 2023 across three sections, including one English Composition I and two English Composition II courses, provides insightful revelations. The study, comprising 28 student respondents, delved into the impact of AI tools through surveys, analysis of writing artifacts, and a best practices guide developed by an honors student. (International Journal of Changes in Education; Jan. 22, 2024)
- Last Year’s AI Views Revisited Ed’s Rec. Another great read, this time by Lance Eaton. In terms of higher education, Eaton makes the point the importance of faculty fully understanding the technology and shaping its use in the classroom to mitigate emerging problems. Even if you are not all that interested in generative AI, this article is worth the read. (AI+Education = Simplified; Jan. 24, 2024)
- ChatGPT Can’t Teach Writing: Automated Syntax Generation Is Not Teaching Ed’s Rec John Warner steps in to fire back at OpenAI’s partnership with Arizona State. (Inside Higher Ed; Jan. 22, 2024)
- What Happens When a Court Cuts Down ChatGPT? Ed’s Rec. Not an idle question posed by futurist Byran Alexander. (Byran’s Substack; Jan. 21, 2024)
- ChatGPT Goes to College Bret Kinsella muses over the ways OpenAI’s partnership with Arizona State will benefit both parties. (Synthedia; Jan. 20, 2024)
- OpenAI Announces First Partnership with a University According to the article, “Starting in February, Arizona State University will have full access to ChatGPT Enterprise and plans to use it for coursework, tutoring, research and more.” (CNBC; Jan. 18, 2024)
- AI Dominates Davos CNBC It’s that time of year! (Jan. 17, 2024)
- AI Writing Is a Race to the Bottom by Alberto Romero, The Algorithmic Bridge Romero’s article discusses how AI writing tools, while offering convenience and efficiency, create a competitive environment that forces human writers to use these tools, ultimately sacrificing the uniqueness of human writing to Moloch, the system of relentless competition. (Jan. 17, 2024)
- The Lazy Tyranny of the Wait Calculation by Ethan Mollik, One Useful Thing. Mollick introduces the concept of a “Wait Calculation” in the context of AI development, where waiting for advancements in AI technology before starting a project can sometimes be more beneficial than immediate action, highlighting the rapid pace of AI development, its potential to impact various fields, and the need to consider the timeline of AI progress in long-term decision-making. (Jan. 16, 2024)
- Who Is ChatGPT? by Dean Pratt, AI Mind A fascinating—or really creepy, depending upon your POV—article in which the author explores a philosophical conversation with an AI entity named Bard, discussing the potential future where AI technology becomes a co-creator and catalyst for experiences blending the real and dreamlike, as well as the importance of empathy, optimism, and interconnectedness in the interaction between humans and AI. (Jan. 14, 2023)
- Creating a Useful GPT? Maybe . . . Lance Eaton has been experimenting with creating customized GPTs. The article explains how one can go about doing it and discusses their limits as well as their promises for the future. (AI + Education = Simplified, Jan. 8, 2024)
**Important OER Resource from Oct. 2023: TextGenEd: Teaching with Text Generation Technologies Edited by Vee et al. WAC Clearing House***At the cusp of this moment defined by AI, TextGenEd collects early experiments in pedagogy with generative text technology, including but not limited to AI. The fully open access and peer-reviewed collection features 34 undergraduate-level assignments to support students’ AI literacy, rhetorical and ethical engagements, creative exploration, and professional writing text gen technology, along with an Introduction to guide instructors’ understanding and their selection of what to emphasize in their courses. (Oct. 2023 but I put the book here.)
Book Launch of TextGenEd: Teaching with Text Generation Technologies:
- Signs and Portents: Some Hints about What the Next Year in AI Looks Like by Ethan Mollick, One Useful Thing Ed’s Rec The article discusses the accelerated development of artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on various aspects of society, emphasizing the need for proactive measures to navigate the challenges and opportunities presented by AI. Mollick highlights AI’s impact on work, its ability to alter the truth through deepfakes and manipulated media, and its effectiveness in education. (Jan. 6, 2023)
- How Will AI Disrupt Higher Education in 2024? By Racy Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed The article discusses the significant impact of generative AI on higher education, highlighting its potential to provide personalized learning experiences, assist faculty, and enhance course outcomes, while also addressing concerns about the emergence of artificial general intelligence (AGI) and its potential implications for education. (Jan. 6, 2024)
- Gender Bias in AI-Generated Images: A Comprehensive Study by Caroline Arnold in Generative AI on Medium (paywall). Arnold shares her findings about gender bias in the Midjourney generative AI algorithm when generating images of people for various job titles, highlighting that the AI model often fails to generate female characters in images, especially for professions where women are underrepresented. While the article is behind a paywall, you can probably find other articles on this topic. (Jan. 4, 2024)
- AI and Teaching College Writing A Future Trends forum discussion, again with Bryan Alexander (Jan. 4, 2024)
- The NYT vs OpenAI Is Not Just a Legal Battle by Alberto Romero, The Algorithmic Bridge This article explores the New York Times (NYT) lawsuit against OpenAI, focusing on the deeper disagreement regarding the relationship between morality and progress in the context of AI, suggesting that while pro-AI arguments emphasize the potential benefits of technology, there should be a more balanced consideration of its impact on society and creators’ rights. (Jan. 3, 2024)
- Empowering Prisoners and Reducing Recidivism with ChaptGPT by Krstafer Pinkerton, AI Advances. Note: The article in its entirety is behind a Members Only paywall, but perhaps you can find Pinkerton’s musings elsewhere. The article explores the potential use of AI language model ChatGPT in prisoner rehabilitation to reduce recidivism rates, emphasizing personalized learning experiences, a safe environment, and ethical considerations, while also highlighting future developments and calling for collective action to responsibly harness AI’s potential in this context. (Jan. 2, 2024)
- Envisioning a New Wave of AI on Campus with Bryan Alexander and Brent Anders This was a fun scenario exercise, in which participants were asked to imagine a future, with AI avatars as instructors. (Jan. 1, 2024)
December 2023
From 2023 to 2024 in AI, Part II: Notes on Culture and Higher Education Ed’s Rec A follow up by Bryan Alexander to Part I! (Dec. 31, 2023)
From 2023 to 2024 in AI, Part I Ed’s Rec Another look-back at generative AI’s explosion onto the higher ed scene, this time by Bryan Alexander. A great contribution to everyone’s AI archive. (Dec. 29, 2023)
**2023: The Comprehensive List of Talks, Writings, & Resources for 2023**Ed’s BIG Recommendation!THANK YOU Lance Eaton for this meaningful roundup of his presentations, interviews, and blog posts! If you want a great overview of AI in 2023, take a look.
**New and Important** Cross-Campus Approaches to Building a Generative AI Policy Educause Review Dec. 12, 2023
- Research Insights #2: Ways of Using Generative AI in Teaching & Learning Lance Eaton reviews three scholarly articles about integrating generative AI into the classroom. (Dec. 24, 2023)
- These Words Make It Obvious That Your Text Was Written by AI Ed’s Rec An article to share with students to begin an discussion about style. (Dec. 31, 2023)
- Unilever Takes AI Ethics from Policy to Process from the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy MIT singles out Unilever for their exemplary ethical use of AI policies. (Dec. 20, 2023)
- AI Models Are Tragic Slaves of Their Sublime Predictive Accuracy The title sums up the author’s main point: “The reason why humans are special has little to do with intelligence.” The second half of the article is behind a pay wall, but the first part makes the point well. (The Algorithmic Bridge; Dec. 20 2023)
- The Most Important ChatGPT Prompt Ed’s Rec. The article is behind a Medium paywall, so here is what you should add to any command or question: “Before you start, please ask me any questions you have about this so that I can give you more context. Be extremely comprehensive.” (Medium; Dec. 19, 2023)
- An AI Haunted World Another great post by Ethan Mollick. He discusses the widespread availability and integration of AI into daily life, highlighting the use of powerful open-source AI models on personal devices, the democratization of AI technology, and the future of AI in creating smart, autonomous systems and hierarchies for various applications. (One Useful Thing; Dec. 19, 2023)
- The Secret to Success with Rapidly Advancing Generative AI A snapshot of AI initiatives, with a call for instructors to become “familiar with and adept at using generative AI.” (Inside Higher Ed; Dec. 18, 2023)
- How Does AI Impact Our Working Lives? An Interview with Dr. Philippa Hardman *Ed’s Rec This is a great podcast with AI expert (and expert educator) Dr. Hardman. Well worth a listen! (Dec. 11)
- AI Won’t Replace Writing Instruction A response to Melissa Nicolas. See Nicolas’s article below, from Nov. 14. (Inside Higher Ed; Dec. 8, 2023)
- An Opinionated Guide to Which AI to Use: ChatGPT Anniversary Edition *Ed’s Rec Another useful resource from Ethan Mollick (One Useful Thing; Dec. 7, 2023)
- What Is Gemini? Everything You Should Know about Google’s New AI Model Google Gemini is a versatile and powerful AI model developed by Google, capable of understanding and generating text, code, images, videos, and audio, and is integrated into various Google products, including Google Bard and the Pixel 8.(ZDNet; Dec. 6, 2023)
- **Limited Time** MIT Sloan Management Review is making its top AI articles available for free—-but only for a limited time. The editors are likely doing this as a way to sign up subscribers, but why not take advantage of it?
November 2023
- What Is OpenAI, Really? A great overview, with a timeline of recent and historical events. For those who must know . . . (The Pragmatic Engineer; Nov. 23, 2023)
- Stephen Fry Reads Nick Cave’s Stirring Letter about ChatGPT and Human Creativity
- An AI Activity to Try with Faculty Lance Eaton looks at an innovative case-study approach that campuses can use to discuss educational policies at “the edges” of (ethical) uses of generative AI.(AI+ Education=Simplified; Nov. 24, 2023)
- What Happened in the World of Artificial Intelligence? Ah, the drama! Here is a very basic overview of the Sam Altman vs. Ilya Sutskever dust-up at OpenAI. (NYT; Nov. 22, 2023)
- OpenAI’s Weekend of Utter Chaos A podcast update from Nov. 20th. (WSJ; Nov. 20, 2023)
- How AI Could Transform Education Nothing earth-shattering new, but a good list of ways generative AI can actually become helpful, especially when it comes to creating individualized lessons. (Artificial Intelligence in Plain Language; Nov. 18, 2023)
- Student EngAIgement: Exploring How to Work with Students with New Technologies *Ed’s Rec A wonderful overview of a recent presentation by Lance Eaton, containing links to very useful resources. (AI + Education = Simplified; Nov. 18, 2023).
- Coup and Chaos at Open AI: The Day After *Ed’s Rec Bryan Alexander breaks down the implications of the turmoil at OpenAI on higher education. (Bryan’s Substack; Nov. 18, 2023)
- AI, Help Me with a Difficult Reading As the title suggests, this blog post looks at ways to prompt GPTs to help readers understand complex texts. (Bryan’s Substack; Nov. 17, 2023)
- Eliminate the Required First-Year Writing Course A provocative piece, one which was answered on Dec. 8 by Mandy Olejnik. These two articles make a good pairing. (Inside Higher Ed; Nov. 14, 2023)
- The Gaps to Fill in Supporting Faculty and Staff with Generative AI A thoughtful article by Lance Eaton that discusses the need for supporting faculty and staff in understanding generative AI, emphasizing the importance of clarity, frameworks, validation, honesty, and centering the audience’s abilities while maintaining a lighthearted approach to navigate the challenges and opportunities of this technology in education. (AI+Education=Simplified; Nov. 9. 2023)
- Does AI Pose an Existential Threat to Humanity? Two Sides Square Off The title of the article says it all. Interesting read. (WSJ; Nov. 8, 2023)
- Almost an Agent: What GPTs Can Do Ethan Mollick discusses how instructors might make an individualized GPT to provide feedback to students. He provides an example of a structured prompt that he is using. (One Useful Thing; 7 Nov. 2023)
- “ChatGPT Detector” Catches AI-Generated Papers with Unprecedented Accuracy A new machine-learning tool has been developed to accurately identify chemistry papers written using the ChatGPT chatbot, focusing on specific writing style features, potentially aiding academic publishers in detecting AI-generated content; however, it remains specialized for scientific journal articles and may not address broader issues in academia. (Nature; Nov. 6, 2023)
- Artificial Intelligence: I’ve Worked Generative AI for Nearly a Year. Here’s What I’ve Learned *Ed’s Rec A straightforward article about how one professional writer has been using generative AI, grouped into 8 observations. (WSJ; Nov. 6, 2023)
- Fear Wins Alberto Romero, publisher of the Algorithmic Bridge, writes a contrarian piece about the current state of AI regulations, or proposed regulations, in the U.S. and E.U. Thoughtful piece. (The Algorithmic Bridge; Nov. 3, 2023)
- The Future of Work in an AI-Driven World *Ed’s Rec This article does a good job of providing an (easy-to-follow) ethical framework for integrating of AI into our professional lives and focuses on how to maximize benefits while mitigating risks such as biases and job displacement. (AI in Plain English; Nov. 2, 2023).
- Working with AI: Two Paths of Prompting Ethan Mollick again does a great job of explaining AI stuff, this time the differences between and purposes of conversational prompting and structured prompting. (One Useful Thing; Nov. 1 2023).
- Generative AI’s Act Two Sequoia is a venture capital firm that invests primarily in the tech sector. While they are not focused on ed tech, their observations about AI and its future are useful–and the website is amazing! (Sequoia; Nov. 1 2023)
- Warning Labels for AI-Generated Text Not a bad idea from Clive Thompson! The entire story is behind a Medium paywall, but you can see the image below:
October 2023
**New** SUNY FACT2 Guide to Optimizing AI in Higher Education
**New Recording Available** The Stunning Rise of Large Language Models: On Campus: Recording from Thursday, October 26 This is a wonderful presentation for anyone interested in generative Artificial Intelligence. Professor Chris Kello, University of California-Merced) gave a very accessible talk for non-computer scientists. To watch the presentation, please click here: The Stunning Rise of Large Language Models
- Students Outrunning Faculty on AI Use This article, reflects the findings from Tyton, shared below. (Inside Higher Ed; Oct. 31, 2023)
- Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education: Trick or Treat? *Ed’s Recommendation Not clickbait—this report by Tyton Partners gives a detailed snapshot of how AI is being used—and faculty/students perceptions of AI use. (Tyton Partners; Oct. 31)
- What Does Higher Ed IT Think about AI Today? *Ed’s Recommendation Bryan Alexander’s most recent blog post after returning from a presentation at Educause 2023. (Bryan’s Substack; Oct. 30, 2023)
- 10 AI Predictions for the Next 10 Months Some insights from an Oxbridge-trained (comp sci) AI expert who is head of a venture capitalist fund. Not education-focused necessarily, of course, but provides an overview of what at least some experts are thinking—-and why they think this way. (Medium; Oct. 30, 2023)
- Responsible AI Has a Burnout Problem *Ed’s Rec This article looks at how difficult it is for tech industry workers to navigate the quickly shifting/changing AI landscape, in particular when it comes to ethical issues. An interesting read. (MIT Tech Review; Oct. 28 2023)
- AI and Peer Review: Enemies or Allies? The academic community debates the potential use of AI in peer reviewing, weighing its potential advantages against ethical concerns and challenges, even as some journals establish guidelines on AI’s role in scholarly publishing. (Inside Higher Ed; Oct. 24, 2023)
- Pinging the Scanner Futurist Bryan Alexander provides a list of AI stories he is following, from legal challenges to AI electric power use. A great round up of current AI stories. (Bryan’s Substack; Oct. 23, 2023)
- Professors of the Gaps The author argues that professors, facing a landscape transformed by AI’s capabilities, need to critically evaluate their tasks to determine what can be automated, ensuring informed decisions about their roles in academic workflows, akin to the evolving understanding of a deity’s role in theism. (AutomatedED; Oct. 23 2023)
- The Best Available Human Standard *Ed’s Recommendation Ethan Mollick argues for a pragmatic approach to AI, emphasizing its ubiquity, capability, and limitations, and introduces the “Best Available Human (BAH)” standard to assess whether AI outperforms the best available human in specific scenarios, highlighting potential benefits in entrepreneurship, coaching, education, health care, and mental health. (One Useful Thing; Oct. 22, 2023)
- The Trouble with AI Writing Detection Pull quote: In July, the Modern Language Association and the Conference on College Composition and Communication released the MLA-CCCC Joint Task Force on Writing and AI working paper. This paper expresses concern about the use of AI detection programs, advising instructors to “Focus on approaches to academic integrity that support students rather than punish them and that promote a collaborative rather than adversarial relationship between teachers and students.” (Inside Higher Ed; Oct. 18, 2023)
- Meet the Typical at-Work ChatGPT User: A Millennial Secretly Submitting Writing Tasks While many Americans are just experimenting with ChatGPT or unaware of it, a subset, predominantly millennial, college-educated professionals, are leveraging it for workplace productivity, particularly in writing tasks, often clandestinely, amidst concerns about job security and lack of AI policy at companies. (Business Insider; Oct. 18 2023)
- What People Ask Me Most. Also Some Answers *Ed’s Recommendation. This is a wonderful FAQ put together about generative AI. Ethan Mollick has compiled a list of the most common questions people ask him about AI. Can you detect AI writing? for example. Take a look! (One Useful Thing; Oct. 12, 2023)
- Where Does the Thinking Happen? Johann Neem discusses the challenges educators face in redefining the role of writing in learning amidst the rise of AI text generators like ChatGPT, emphasizing that while writing may represent finalized thoughts in some disciplines, in the humanities writing is central to the thinking process itself, thus requiring discipline-specific strategies to integrate AI without undermining critical thinking and expressive skills. (Inside Higher Ed; Oct. 11, 2023)
- Best AI Tools to Generate Anything Worth a look. (Medium; Oct. 10, 2023)
- Admissions Offices Deploy AI A recent survey from Intelligent, an online education magazine, reveals that 50% of higher education admissions offices are using AI in their application review processes, with an additional 7% planning to adopt it by year-end and 80% considering its use in 2024. This adoption rate has surged since the introduction of ChatGPT, with admissions professionals recognizing the potential benefits of AI tools in their work. These tools are primarily used for reviewing transcripts, recommendation letters, and personal essays. (Inside Higher Ed; Oct. 9, 2023)
- Few Campus IT Leaders See AI as a Top Campus Priority Security, online course delivery, funding and staffing are far more important to CIOs. While there’s a growing interest in AI, many institutions are still in the early stages of adoption. Cybersecurity remains a top priority, especially after recent breaches. (Inside Higher Ed; Oct. 9, 2023)
- The Shape of the Shadow of the Thing *Ed’s Recommendation Another Ethan Mollick reflective piece taking stock of where we are now, 10 months (or so) into the public release of ChatGPT. (One Useful Thing; Oct. 3, 2023)
- An AI Engineer’s Guide to Machine Learning and Generative AI Want to take a dive into generative AI? This is a great primer for non-tech people. (Medium; Oct. 3, 2023)
September 2023
- AI and the Convergence of Writing and Coding *Ed’s Recommendation A thoughtful consideration of generative AI in the writing and comp sci classrooms. (Insider Higher Ed; Sept. 28)
- Everyone Is Above Average: Is AI a Leveler, King Maker, or Escalator? Mollick argues that AI is serving as a skill leveler, significantly elevating the performance of lower-skilled workers across various fields to or above average levels, thereby narrowing the skill gap. (Ethan Mollick’s One Useful Thing; Sept. 24).
- Want Your Students to Be Skeptical of ChatGPT? Try This. A useful exercise for exploring ChatGPT. (The Chronicle; Sept. 24)
- Microsoft, Google Build Their Worlds around AI It’s NOT just about ChatGPT. A discussion of the built in features that are coming and have come to word processing and other programs. (Axios; Sept. 22)
- The Reversal Curse: LLMs Trained on “A Is B” Fail to Learn “B Is A” This paper “expose(s) a surprising failure of generalization.” To read an easier-to-follow (for us non-Math people) overview, look at this (alarmist?) explanation Elegant and Powerful New Result that Seriously Undermines Large Language Models. Very interesting. (Substack; ArXiv; Sept. 21)
- If ChatGPT Can Do It It’s Not Worth Doing A contrarian response to Ethan Mollick’s research below. Writing teacher John Warner critiques the reliance on large language models like ChatGPT for writing tasks, asserting that their ability to mimic human writing in educational and professional fields may devalue genuine learning and originality, and calls for a critical reassessment of tasks that truly require human innovation and thought. (Inside Higher Ed; Sept. 21)
- Navigating the Jagged Technological Frontier: Field Experimental Evidence of the Effects of AI on Knowledge Worker Productivity *Ed’s Recommendation In a study with Boston Consulting Group, consultants using AI, like GPT-4, showed increased productivity and quality in specific tasks, but struggled in others, with two distinct AI-use patterns emerging: “Centaurs” dividing tasks and “Cyborgs” fully integrating AI. To read an overview of this study, go to this article, “Centaurs and Cyborgs on the Jagged Frontier” by Ethan Mollick, one of the researchers. Mollick teases the piece with this pull quote: I think we have an answer on whether AIs will reshape work. (Harvard Business School Technology and Operational Mgt.; Sept. 18)
- Teachers Are All In on Generative AI Note that the article focuses on how instructors (mostly k-12) are using generative AI to create teaching materials (Wired; Sept. 15).
- Stop Focusing on Plagiarism, Even Though ChatGPT Is Here *Ed’s Recommendation A discussion of how to create a culture of trust in the classroom, with helpful links to other resources. (Harvard Business Publishing; Sept. 14)
- AI: Brilliant but Biased Tool for Education The author discusses how ChatGPT has raised concerns among educators, leading to debates about its impact on learning and academic integrity. In response, institutions are exploring ways to adjust their teaching methods, with some incorporating AI into assignments to encourage critical thinking, while also emphasizing the importance of recognizing biases in AI-generated information and the need for students to master these tools for a technologically advanced future.
(Diverse Issues in Higher Education; Sept. 13) - Why Professors Are Polarized on AI *Ed’s Recommendation Explores faculty divisions over the use of AI in higher ed. While the discussion of “tribalism” may be a stretch, the piece looks at how instructors are lining up into pro- and anti- AI camps. (Inside Higher Ed; Sept. 13)
- AI Means Professors Need to Raise Their Grading Standards *Ed’s Recommendation English professor Michael W. Clune expresses concern over the rise of AI tools like ChatGPT in producing “merely competent” student essays, and he sees these compositions as lacking in educational value due to their absence of originality and human sensibility. (Chronicle of Higher Ed; Sept. 12)
- So let’s say you want to use an idea produced by ChatGPT—should you give ChatGPT credit for the ideas? Here is an unscientific survey of Wall Street Journal readers on the topic. (WSJ; Sept. 10)
- Paper Retracted When Authors Caught Using ChatGPT to Write It The issue is a little more involved than the headline suggests, but it is true that the authors did not disclose their use of the LLM. The basic issue was transparency rather than any piece of incorrect information. Something to think about when using ChatGPT for editing. (The Byte; Sept. 9)
- M.B.A. Students Vs. ChatGPT: Who Comes Up with More Innovative Ideas? Two professors at Wharton put the question to the test and discovered that ChatGPT outdid the MBA students. They found the result “were not even close.” (WSJ; Sept. 9, 2023)
- Large-Scale Automatic Audiobook Creation Did you know? Project Gutenberg has uploaded audiobook versions of many of their titles thanks to AI tech. (Sept. 7, 2023)
- What Will Determine AI’s Impact on Higher Education? 5 Signs to Watch *Ed’s Recommendation A must-read providing an overview of the generative AI landscape in higher ed. While there are plenty of cautions, despite the criticisms, experts believe generative AI is here to stay, with rivals to OpenAI developing their own models. The introduction of AI in education has led to discussions about the essence of learning. Some believe that the focus should be on motivating students to learn rather than preventing AI usage. (The Chronicle; Sept, 8; If the link does not work, you can find this article on the STL databases.)
- Using LLMs Like ChatGPT to Quickly Plan Better Lessons *Ed’s Recommendation Graham Clay (a philosophy instructor currently teaching at University College Dublin and co-founder of AutomatedED) is a thoughtful generative AI adopter. In this article, he give tips on using generative AI to “increase the quality of . . . lesson plans.” You may find his prompts useful. (AutomatedED; Sept. 8)
- Explain Which AI You Mean The author cautions us about the way the term “AI” is being thrown around in the media and in conversations to describe processes that really should not be considered artificial intelligence—not all computer programs are related to advancement in Large Learning Models, much less were they designed to pass something like the Turing Test. Also, there are several types of AI, broken down broadly into generative AI and predictive AI. Yes, you need a Medium membership to read the post in its entirety, but even the first few (free) paragraphs are worth a review. (Medium; Sept. 5)
- Embracing Weirdness: What It Means to Use AI as a Writing Tool *Ed’s Recommendation. Another interesting article by Ethan Mollick (Wharton; UPenn). Great article about how generative AI can move beyond just being a thesaurus or grammar checker. One area of focus is on setting up chat bots to read and react as a specific audience in order to fully understand the rhetorical situation. Well worth the read! (One Useful Thing; Sept. 5)
- Risks and Rewards as Higher Ed Invests in an AI Future *Ed’s Recommendation. This is especially eye-opening when one considers the investment made in SUNY Albany’s AI initiatives. (Inside Higher Ed; Sept. 5)
- How Worried Should We Be About AI’s Threat to Humanity_ Even Tech Leaders Can’t Agree. – WSJ A lengthy feature story by the WSJ that provides a snapshot of various views among AI expert. If you want to take the pulse of AI researchers, give this a read. (WSJ; Sept. 4)
- On Copyright and AI *Ed’s Recommendation This piece, which was written by Jeff Jarvis a professor at CUNY’s journalism school, looks at cases that are currently before the courts. Jarvis asserts that “. . . it is hard to see how reading and learning from text and images to produce transformative works would not be fair use. I worry that if these activities — indeed, these rights — are restricted . . . precedent is set that could restrict use for us all. As a journalist, I fear that by restricting learning sets to viewing only free content, we will end up with a problem parallel to that created by the widespread use of paywalls in news: authoritative, fact-based reporting will be restricted to the privileged few who can and choose to pay for it, leaving too much of public discourse vulnerable to the misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracies available for free, without restriction.” Still, the claim is somewhat ironic, given his post is behind a paywall. (Medium; Sept. 2)
- College Admissions: Should AI Apply? The author discusses how AI generated college application essays are uninspired and not likely to get anyone into Harvard. However, AI bots can be helpful for students who may feel stuck with an essay prompt. And why some institutions like Yale regard the use of AI generators as a form of plagiarism when it comes to the college essay, other schools like Virginia Tech view such programs as a way to “democratize the [college application] process.” Interesting article. (IEEE Spectrum; Sept. 1)
- RLAIF: Scaling Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback with AI Feedback (Scholarly Article Link) and Medium Article by Peter Xing (digesting the research). So, it looks as if programmers/researchers are finding ways to train Large Language Models that “match the performance of traditional reinforcement learning from human feedback” (RLHF). At least it works with summarizing text. This points to the probability that ChatGPT and other such programs will be able to become better at producing text that human evaluators prefer. (Sept. 1 2023)
August 2023
- OpenAI Disputes Authors’ Claims that Every ChatGPT Response Is a Derivative Work Open AI’s central argument is that its goal was “to teach its models to derive the rules underlying human language” and not to repackage and sell copyrighted work or give users the ability to do so. (Ars Technica; Aug. 30)
- We Analyzed Millions of ChatGPT User Sessions If you are interested in how ChatGPT is being used, you may be surprised to find that about 30% of the time, it is being used to write computer code. This is an interesting snapshot of usage happening in the months before the first day of Fall 2023 classes. This article has some fascinating charts! Written by a Silicon Valley startup CEO. (SparkToro; Aug. 30).
- We Still Must Make Students Write *Ed’s Recommendation (Inside Higher Ed; Aug. 29 2023)
- 4 Questions to Ask Before Swapping Human Labor for AI *Ed’s Recommendation Short piece that presents us with sensible questions to ask about the role of generative AI. (MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy; Aug. 28, 2023)
- ChatGPT Calls for Scholarship, Not Panic Written by our own Andrew Higgins (English)! *Ed’s Recommendation (Inside Higher Ed; Aug. 25, 2023)
- The Next Step Is Responsible AI. How Do We Get There? *Ed’s Recommendation An easy-to-understand, brief article written by a data scientist. (Medium; Aug. 25)
- August 26 Webinar: Association of College & University Educators / AI and Higher Education
- How Schools Can Survive (and Even Thrive) with AI (NYT; Aug. 24, 2023)
- Bias Optimizers A reminder that systems trained on biased source material are . . . biased. (American Scientist; July-Aug. 2023; permalink to article via STL)
- OpenAI Opens ChatGPT 3.5 Turbo Up for Custom Tuning This move enables companies to “fine-tune” chatbots using their own data, and it is likely going to be one of the most useful uses of generative AI. (The Verge; Aug. 22, 2023)
- Now Is the Time for Grimoires *Ed’s Recommendation Ethan Mollick (Wharton) makes his case for developing open access libraries for AI prompts. (Note: “Grimoires” is used to refer to “a book of spells.” As usual, Mollick gives the reader a lot to think about! (Aug. 20, 2023)
- AI on the Brink Futurist Bryan Alexander (Georgetown) provides an expansive look at AI, and not all his predictions are rosy! (Bryan’s Substack; Aug. 20, 2023)
- You’ve Checked Out the New AI Tools. Now What? *Ed’s Recommendation A timely article for FA23 lesson planning! (Chronicle of HE; Aug. 17 2023) Access through STL
- The Growing Revolt Against AI Data Scraping The basic question is: Should unapproved content be used as training data for LLMs, and does it qualify as fair use? (Medium (may be behind paywall); Aug. 15, 2023)
- Scientists Say New Tool Makes Images Worthless for Training AI Researchers at U Chicago have come up with a tool to protect artists’ work from being used to train AI. Interesting. (The Byte; Aug. 15, 2023)
- Automating Creativity: There Is Now Strong Evidence That AI Can Help Make Us More Innovative *Ed’s Recommendation Another well-argued piece by Ethan Mollick (One Simple Thing; Aug. 13, 2023)
- What if Generative AI Turned Out to Be a Dud? A counter-argument to the “generative AI is revolutionary” position. Interesting. (Gary Marcus–Substack; Aug. 12, 2023)
- News Outlets Demand New Rules for AI Training Data (The Verge; Aug. 10)
- The Creative Ways Teachers Are Using ChatGPT in the Classroom *Editor’s Recommendation (Time; Aug. 8)
- The Phone Book Challenge A great idea for using ChatGPT to practice reasoning and critique. (Inside Higher Ed; Aug. 9)
- AI Language Models Are Rife with Different Political Biases *Editor’s Recommendation An important topic to discuss with students. (MIT Tech Review; Aug. 7, 2023)
- Here Comes the Second Year of AI in College Behind a paywall for now (and not available via the library), but if you subscribe to The Atlantic, you can retrieve it. (The Atlantic; Aug. 7 2023)
- Shockwaves & Innovations: How Nations Worldwide Are Dealing with AI in Education Subheading: Other countries are quickly adopting artificial intelligence in schools. Lessons from Singapore, South Korea, Indian, China, Finland, and Japan. (The 74; Aug. 7)
- Elevate Your Case Prep with ChatGPT: 5 Ways AI Can Help You Ask Better Questions and Plan More Thoughtful Class Discussions *Ed’s Recommendation (Inspiring Minds; Harvard Business School Publishing; Aug. 2 2023)
- Embracing Constructive Dialogue and Oral Assessments in the Age of AI *Editor’s Recommendation A great read for all faculty, whether you are considering using ChatGPT and generative AI in your classes or not. (Inside Higher Ed; Aug. 3).
- Four Charts Showing Why AI Progress Is Unlikely to Slow For those of us who like charts. (Time; Aug. 2)
- AI Has Finally Become Transformative – WSJ The focus is on business, but interesting. (WSJ Opinion; Aug. 2)
- In Praise of Boring AI Ethan Mollick posits that generative AI can be best leveraged to do our most tedious kind of work. (One Useful Thing Substack; Aug. 2)
- Scared of AI? Don’t Be. Computer Science Instructors Say (Chronicle of HE; Aug. 2 2023)
- Talkin’ ‘Bout AI Generation: Copyright and the Generative AI Supply Chain A scholarly article (the authors are at Cornell) that explores the complex copyright issues raised by the generative AI supply chain, without seeking definitive answers but highlighting key decision points where the analysis diverges. (SSRN; Aug. 1)
- The AI Rules that US Policymakers Are Considering, Explained (Vox; Aug. 1 2023)
- AI Is Thirsty Each chat with a large-language Model is like dumping a bottle of water on the ground says the author. Interesting metaphor to describe (Medium; Aug. 1)
July 2023
- Professors Craft Courses on ChatGPT with ChatGPT (Inside Higher Ed; July 31)
- From AI to A+: Prepare Your Students for Using ChatGPT and Other AI *Editor’s Recommendation Written by a Professor of Educational Technology at George Washington U. Great advice—whether you plan to incorporate AI use or not in your classes. (Medium; July 28).
- If Your Syllabus Needs a Refresh, Generative AI Can Help 4 simple ways ChatGPT can help you build richer courses. (Harvard Business Publishing; July 27)
- Academic Success Tip: Working Smarter with ChatGPT A professor at the University of Iowa taught students how to get better results from ChatGPT with a classroom assignment. (Inside Higher Ed; July 26)
- Empowering Education with Generative Artificial Intelligence Tools: Approach with an Instructional Design Matrix *Ed’s Recommendation This article, published in Digital Education for Sustaining Our Society, makes some powerful recommendation for faculty development around AI and its incorporation into the classroom. )July 25, 2023)
- OpenAI Scuttles AI-Written Text Detector Over “Low Rate of Accuracy” (TechCrunch; July 25)
- Eight Things Educators Need to Know about AI *Editor’s Recommendation An easy-to-follow, tech-light piece by a Senior Advisor at the Stanford Graduate School of Eductaion (Medium; July 24)
- Why a Notre Dame Professor Bets AI Is Good for the Humanities The title says it all. Worth a read. (AutomatED; July 24)
- OpenAI, Google and More Agree to White House List of AI Safety Assurances The most interesting of these may be the watermarking of text and images created by generative AI. However, please refer to the March 17 article: Can AI-Generated Text Be Reliably Detected? (Tech Republic; July 24)
- On Holding Back the Strange AI Tide *Site Editor’s Recommendation. If you read one article about the current state of AI and higher ed . . . seriously. (One Useful Thing; Ethan Mollick*, July 23)
- Paving the Path for Blue Collar AI Professionals A technologist examines certificate programs colleges are starting to offer in AI-related fields. (Medium; July 23)
- How Colleges and Universities Are Responding to AI Now *Site Editor’s Recommendation For those interested in taking the pulse of higher ed in Summer 23, this article by futurist Bryan Alexander provides a succinct overview. (Substack; July 17)
- Maybe Showing Off an AI-Generated Fake TV Episode During a Writers’ Strike Is a Bad Idea For those interested in how AI can create a South Park spoof, this article has a link to the finished product. (TechCrunch; July 17)
- AI Eroding AI? A New Era for Artificial Intelligence and Academic Integrity Provides specific recommendations. (Faculty Focus; July 19)
- Is ChatGPT Getting Worse Over Time? A rebuttal to the research paper below. (AI Snake Oil (blog); July 19)
- How Is ChatGPT’s Behavior Changing Over Time? Researchers from Stanford and Berkeley suggest the LLM is getting . . . dumber? (arXiv.org; July 18)
- Students’ Voices on Generative AI: Perceptions, Benefits, and Challenges in Higher Education An interesting study, conducted in Hong Kong. (International Journal of Ed Tech in Higher Ed; July 17 2023)
- Here Are Ways Professional Education Leaders Can Prepare Students for the Rise of AI An interesting article by the Dean of William and Mary Law School (Higher Ed Dive; July 17)
- Why AI Detectors Think the US Constitution Was Written by AI Another caution about the limits of AI detectors. (Ars Technica; July 14)
- As AI Continues to Progress, Opportunities and Warnings Abound Snapshot of some teaching practices around AI. (Diverse Issues in Higher Education; July 14)
- AI Junk Is Filling the Internet (WSJ; July 17)
- AI and the Next Digital Divide in Education (Brookings Institute; July 10)
- AI Safety and the Age of Dislightenment(Sic) Interesting opinion piece about move to regulate AI and unintended consequences. (fast.ai; July 10)
- GPT Detectors Are Biased Against Non-Native English Writers The popular press picked up this story. Here is a link to the research. (Patterns; July 10)
- AI Has a Language Diversity Problem. Humans Do Too An interesting look at the dangers and promises of AI, with a deeper reflection on linguistic diversity. (Inside Higher Ed; July 10)
- A Specter is Haunting Higher Education: Fall Semester after the Generative AI Revolution *Site Editor’s Recommendation. If you want a great overview of where we are now, take a look at this article from a higher ed futurist. It contains links to other valuable articles. (Byran’s Substack; Bryan Alexander; July 7)
- Building the AI Talent Pipeline A look at one college’s approach to training students for an AI workforce; (Inside Higher Ed; July 7)
- The Critique of AI as a Foundation for Judicious Use in Higher Education (Journal of Applied Learning & Teaching; July 6)
- Reasoning or Reciting? Exploring the Capabilities and Limitations of Language Models Through Counterfactual Tasks MIT and BU researchers look at LLM. For comp. sci/ engineering folk interested in recent LLM research (although the casual reader may benefit from reading the discussion and conclusion sections). (arXIV.org; July 5)
- Rethinking Online Assessment Strategies: Authenticity Versus AI Chatbot Intervention (Journal of Applied Learning & Teaching; July 2)
- AI Ozymandias A rambling philosophical blog post worth a read. (Fredie deBeour; July 3)
- In Defense of Humanity An opinion piece by Adrienne LaFrance about the need to “resist over-reliance on tools that dull the wisdom of our own aesthetics and intellect. (The Atlantic; July 1 2023)
- The Homework Apocalypse *Site Editor’s Recommendation. This is a deep dive into why Fall 23 is going be to different for most of us. Contains useful links. (One Useful Thing; Ethan Mollick*, July 1)
*Ethan Mollick’s Substack is worth subscribing to. While you may not wind up agreeing with what he has to say all the time, Mollick (Wharton) knows a lot about AI developments.
June 2023
- On One Creative Use of AI A case study of how AI can be used in creative storytelling. (Bryan’s Sbstack; Bryan Alexander; Jun 30)
- Those Who Can’t Do, Do AI A highly-opinionated piece about AI generated art, music, and writing. (Medium: June 30 2023)
- ChatGPT Prompt Guide *Site Editor’s Recommendation A basic overview of prompts. If you are interested in experimenting with generative AI writing, start here. (Jeff Swisher; June 29)
- Suspicions, Cheating, and Bans: AI Hits American’s Schools Includes interviews with students. Very interesting. *Site Editor’s Recommendation (NYTimes; June 28)
- A Professor Encouraged Students to Use ChatGPT. OpenAI Asked Her What She Learned (Tech & Learning; June 29)
- AI Is the Scariest Beast Ever Created With a nod to H.P. Lovecraft! (Newsweek; Bruce Stirling; June 28)
- 7 Strategies to Prepare Educators to Teach with AI Intended for K-12, but useful for higher ed.; (Education Week; June 27)
- AI’s Big Deal: AI in the Classroom *Site Editor’s Recommendation This article provides a good overview of where we are. (Tech & Learning; June 26)
- We’ll Need to Put Humanism at the Center of Generative AI (Harvard Business Review; Daniel Julien; June 23)
- Student and Faculty Perspectives on Digital Learning Differ (Inside Higher Ed; June 21)
- Building the New Model for Teaching and Learning A look at the OpenAI Academy—which is coming soon. (Inside Higher Ed; June 21)
- ChatGPT: Deconstructing the Debate and Moving It Forward *Site Editor’s Recommendation The author considers the ethical debates around generative AI. (AI & Society; June 21)
- The People Paid to Train AI Are Outsourcing Their Work . . . to AI Not a surprise. Refer to the article below. (MIT Tech Review; June 22; about inherent biases)
- AI Is a Lot of Work A sobering look at a “vast task underclass” that is developing around AI. (The Verge; June 20)
- Why We Failed to “Plagiarize” an Economics Project with AI *Site Editor’s Recommendation A test case of an instructor attempting to best an assignment that was designed to be AI-proof. Contains some great recommendations (AutomatedED; June 19)
- Are Your Students Ready for AI?:A Four-Step Framework to Prepare Learners for a ChatGPT World*Site Editor’s Recommendation Even if you are not interested in introducing AI into your pedagogy at present, this is worth the read. Harvard Business School is obviously on board with AI. (Harvard Business Publishing; June 15)
- Embracing ChatGPT and other Generative AI Tools in Higher Education: The Importance of Fostering Trust and Responsible Use in Teaching and Learning *Site Editor’s Recommendation. A thoughtful piece which contains some concrete examples and questions to use with students. (J. Sim; The Head Foundation; June 15).
- The Real Challenge of AI Bemoans the fact that government and industry are not taking steps to protect those most vulnerable to AI disruptions. (Inside Higher Ed; June 15)
- How Do We Respond to Generative AI in Education? Open Educational Practices Give Us a Framework for an Ongoing Process *Site Editor’s Recommendation Provides a look at how faculty can share information about best teaching practices and take other steps to response to the AI revolution. (Journal of Applied Learning and Teaching; June 11)
- Teaching Creatively with AI (Webinar; Bryan Alexander: Future Trends Forum; June 9)
- Why AI Will Save the World Provocative title! An interesting, wide-ranging reflection by (former U of Illinois academic, now venture capitalist) (June 6, 2023)
- What’s a Word Worth in the AI Era?* Site Editor’s recommendation This would be a wonderful article to share with students as the author emphasizes the value of a student’s own words and voice. (Inside Higher Ed; June 8)
- How AI Tools both Help and Hinder Equity (Inside Higher Ed; June 5)
May 2023
- Closing the Equity Gap with ChatGPT David Wiley, founder of Lumen, seems intrigued by the potential of generative AI. (David Wiley; blog; May 15)
- How Using AI Optimizes Instruction and Learning in Secondary Writing A discussion with a K-12 teacher using AI. (EdSurge; May 15)
- 3 Ways Higher Education Can Prepare for the Generative AI Revolution (World Economic Forum; May 2)
- Examining Science Education in ChatGPT: An Exploratory Study of Generative Artificial Intelligence (Journal of Education &Technology; G. Cooper; March 22)
- Experimental Evidence on the Productivity Effects of Generative Artificial Intelligence A look at how generative AI can help professionals in the workplace. (Working Paper; Noy and Zhang: MIT; March 2)
- Webinar Recording: Unlocking the Power of AI: How Tools Like ChatGPT Can Make Teaching Easier and More Effective The title says it all. (Harvard Business Publishing; May 2023)
- I’m a Student. You Have No Idea How Much We’re Using ChatGPT (The Chronicle; May 12)
- Why I’m Excited about ChatGPT: 10 Ways ChatGPT is a boon to first-year writing instruction An interesting list that provides ideas for using generative AI in the classroom. (Inside Higher Ed; May 11)
April 2023
- What If Ethics Got in the Way of Generative AI? From the abstract: Ethics are best exercised in how these tools are applied and their data verified. (IT Professional; March-April 2023)
- ‘This Changes Everything’: AI Is About to Upend Teaching and Learning(The 74; April 27)
- ” ‘I’ve Never Had a Writer Better than ChatGPT’: How AI Is Upending the Freelance World” A peak into the world of freelance writing, with implications for student writing as well. (Forbes; April 20)
- How ChatGPT Bested Me and Worsted My Students A faculty member’s reflection on how AI detection tools don’t really work. A cautionary tale. (Inside Higher Ed; April 20)
- Yes, We Are in a (ChatGPT) Crisis *Site Editor’s Recommendation Does the answer come down to the quality of student-instructor relationships? (Inside Higher Ed; April 18)
- What ChatGPT Means for Universities Perceptions of Scholars and Students (Journal of Applied Learning and Teaching; April 18, 2023)
- Can Colleges Balance ChatGPT’s Influence with Ethics Curriculum? A discussion with a professor of business ethics. (Higher Ed Dive; 13 April)
- I Wish GPT-4 Had Never Happened A short reflection on a co-worker losing their job to AI. (Blog post; April 11)
- ChatGPT at Work: What Is the Cyber Risk for Employers? Intended for business professionals but applicable to higher ed. (Cyber Security Dive; April 11)
- How language-generation AIs could transform science (Nature; April)
- Will ChatGPT Change How Professors Assess Learning?: It Won’t Be Easy without Their College’s Support (The Chronicle; April 5)
- Can Turnitin Cure Higher Ed’s AI Fever? (Inside Higher Ed; April 4)
March 2023
- ChatGPT-4 Technical Report If you want to take a deep dive into the technical end of ChatGPT-4, this is for you. (Open AI; March 27)
- A Campus with ChatGPT: The Ethics Behind AI Text Generation in Education An article informed by the conversation a theology/philosophy professor at BU had on Reddit about ChatGPT–worth a look. (BU Experts; blog; March 22)
- ChatGPT Can Save Your Hours of Work. Why Are Some Companies Banning It? Short answer: issues of confidentiality. (WSJ; March 23)
- A Guide to Generative AI Policy Making An argument for taking action. Now. (Inside Higher Ed; March 2023)
- How AI Is Shaping the Future of Higher Education A big picture overview that also looks at the research potential of AI. Inside Higher Ed; March 22)
- ChatGPT in Higher Education Considerations for Academic Integrity and Student Learning*Site Editor’s Recommendation (Journal of Applied Learning & Teaching; March 21)
- Don’t Believe the Hype: Why ChatGPT Is not the “Holy Grail” of AI Research (Slate; March 19)
- AI Makes Plagiarism Harder to Detect, Argue Academics–In a Paper Written by Chatbot (The Guardian; March 19)
- How Will Language Modelers Like ChatGPT Affect Occupations and Industries? *Site Editor’s Recommendation No surprise. College instructors are a group that is deemed to be most impacted by the AI revolution. (Felten (Princeton); Raj (UPenn); Seamans (NYU); March 18)
- Can AI-Generated Text be Reliably Detected? *Site Editor’s Recommendation According to this scholarly journal article, the answer is: No. (arXiv; March 17)
- GPT-4 Is Exciting and Scary (NYT; March 16)
- 5 Jaw-Dropping Things GPT-4 Can Do that ChatGPT Couldn’t We will soon be introduced to GPT-4.5 and GPT-5, so this article will quickly become dated. (CNN Business; March 16)
- Faculty Members Still Aren’t Sure What to Make of ChatGPT A snapshot of faculty perceptions. (The Chronicle; March 16)
- Teaching: What You Need to Know About ChatGPT *Site Editor’s Recommendation. Remains a solid piece of advice. (The Chronicle; March 16)
- How Are Faculty Reacting to ChatGPT? Interestingly, 67% of faculty in this survey used mostly-positive words to describe their reaction. (Working Paper; Dukewich and Larsen; March 15)
- Experimenting with Using ChatGPT as a Simulation Application (Blog; Bryan Alexander, ed tech futurist; March 5)
- The Inside Story of How ChatGPT Was Built (MIT Technology Review; March 3)
- Who’s Afraid of ChatGPT? Not this editor. (WSJ; March 2)
- Collaborating with ChatGPT: Considering Implications of Generative Artificial Intelligence for Journalism and Media Education (Journalism & Mass Communication Educator; March 2023)
- Robo-writers: the rise and risks of language-generating AI (Nature; March)
- Teacher and Student Guide to Analyzing AI Writing Tools (SCROLL DOWN to item 9. Book chapter)
- With ChatGPT, Teachers Can Plan Lessons, Write Emails, and More: What’s the Catch? A K-12 focused article that warns about: 1) factual errors in AI-generated writing and 2) trying to use AI to grade student work. (Education Week; 2023)
February 2023
- A Chatbot Is Secretly Doing My Job: On Creating Serviceable Copy using ChatGPT A confession by an author. (The Atlantic; Feb. 27)
- ChatGPT Heralds an Intellectual Revolution – WSJ An op-ed. (WSJ; Feb. 25)
- Guide to Teaching and Learning Critical Analysis with ChatGPT Written by educators at University of Massachusetts, Amherst. (SmartBrief; Feb. 24)
- It’s Not Just Our Students — ChatGPT Is Coming for Faculty Writing Argues for transparency around the use of AI in faculty publications. (The Chronicle of Higher Education; Feb. 22)
- AI Bots Can Seem Sentient. Students Need Guardrails Discusses the need to provide AI directives in course syllabi. (Inside Higher Ed; Feb. 22)
- From CEOs to Coders, Employees Experiment With New AI Programs – WSJ (WSJ; Feb. 20)
- Artificial Hallucinations in ChatGPT: Implications in Scientific Writing (Cureus; Feb. 19)
- Is There Anything ChatGPT’s AI ‘Kant’ Do_ – WSJ An interesting look at ChatGPT and moral reasoning. (WSJ; Feb. 14)
- ChatGPT Is a Plague Upon Education The author uses an extended analogy, comparing ChatGPT to Covid-19. (Inside Higher Ed; Feb. 9)
- Why All Our Classes Suddenly Became AI Classes (Harvard Business Publishing; Feb. 9)
- ChatGPT Has Everyone Freaking Out About Cheating. It’s Not the First Time Contextualizing the AI crisis. (The Chronicle; Feb. 8)
- An Important Next Step on Our AI Journey CEO of Google and Alphabet discusses Bard—this may wind up being an interesting historical document! (Feb. 6)
- New in Coding Class: Critiquing ChatGPT (NYT; Feb. 6)
- We Can’t Predict How AI Will Change Learning *Site Editor’s Recommendation Contains a podcast, video, and questions to ask about AI. Useful resource! (Blog; Feb. 4)
- Teaching_ Rethinking Research Papers, and Other Responses to ChatGPT (The Chronicle of Higher Education; Feb. 2)
- ChatGPT and AI Text Generators: Should Academia Adapt or Resist? (Harvard Business School; Feb. 1)
- AI and OER (Blog; Lumen Learning)
January 2023 and December 2022
- ChatGPT: Bullshit Spewer or the End of Traditional Assessments in Higher Education? (Journal of Applied Learning & Teaching; *Site Editor’s Recommendation ;Includes a good, short history of OpenAI and ChatGPT; Jan. 2023)
- When AI Is Writing, Who Is the Author? *Site Editor’s Recommendation. Yes, a very basic question. Inside Higher Ed; Jan. 31)
- A college student created an app that can tell whether AI wrote an essay Hmmmm. Maybe not really. (NPR; Jan. 29)
- ChatGPT Is Fun but Not an Author (Science; Jan. 27)
- Professors Turn to ChatGPT to Teach Students a Lesson (WSJ; Jan. 25)
- How Should Schools Respond to ChatGPT?(NYT; Jan. 24)
- How to stop worrying and love (or at least live with) ChatGPT (NPR; Jan. 24)
- Lesson Plan: Teaching and Learning in the Era of ChatGPT *Site Editor’s Recommendation. Contains interesting questions and resources to get students discussing the ethics of using generative AI writing tools like ChatGPT. (NYT; Jan. 24)
- ChatGPT: Evolution or Revolution? Short opinion piece about the future use of ChatGPT in writing scholarly research papers. (Medicine, Health Care, and Philosophy; Jan. 19)
- Alarmed by A.I. Chatbots, Universities Start Revamping How They Teach A snapshot from back in January 2023 about how instructors are responding to tools such as Chat-GPT. (NYT; Jan. 16)
- The Impact of ChatGPT and AI on Higher Education: Navigating the Rapidly Changing Landscape Interesting article with some useful hyperlinks to other texts. (Medium; Johanna Creswell Báez (blog); Jan. 13)
- ChatGPT Advice Academics Can Use Now*Site Editor’s Recommendation Although published back in Jan. 2023, this piece has some solid advice that is still applicable. Take a look. (Inside Higher Ed; Jan. 12)
- Don’t Ban ChatGPT, Teach with It (NYT; Jan. 12)
- My First Chat with the Bot Saving this piece as it will quickly become a dated but interesting first response to generative AI writing. (Inside Higher Ed; Jan. 12)
- Will ChatGPT Change the Way You Teach? Uhm, yes! (The Chronicle of Higher Education; Jan. 5)
- If It Was Good Enough for Socrates, It’s Good Enough for Sophomores An argument for oral exams. Requires NYT subscription. (NYT; Dec. 2, 2022)
- Cheating With ChatGPT: Can OpenAI’s Chatbot Pass AP Lit? Yup. And Chat-GPT 4 is even better. (WSJ; Dec. 21, 2022)
- “How to Update Your Syllabus for ChatGPT *Site Editor’s Recommendation. Solid advice. (Ryan Watkins (blog); Dec. 18, 2022)
- The_Brilliance_And_Weirdness_Of ChatGPT This will wind up being one of those “back in the day” articles. Save it. (NYT; Dec. 9, 2022)
Articles written by SUNY New Paltz faculty & SUNY New Paltz Webinars and Talks:
ChatGPT Calls for Scholarship, Not Panic by Andrew Higgins, English, Inside Higher Ed; Aug. 25, 2023
ChatGPT, Artificial Intelligence, and the Future of Writing by Glenn Geher, Psychology, Psychology Today
With ChatGPT, We’re All Editors Now by Rachel Rigolino, English, Inside Higher Ed
ChatGPT Unleashed: Navigating the Future of AI-Generated Content on Campus (SUNY New Paltz; April 2023)*Editor’s Recommendation:
Without Limits: Conversation with Author Carmen Maria Machado (April 2023):
International Webinar Facilitated by Doni Wulandana (Engineering):
Recent Webinars, Forums, TedTalks and Podcasts
PODCASTS SERIES:
Consider subscribing to this podcast series, sponsored by the The New York State Association for Computers and Technologies in Education or NYSCATE. Though this group focuses on k-12 educators, college instructors will find the information useful as well. You can sign up on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts (among other services).
AI, Ethics, and Academia (Future Trends Forum; Aug. 18, 2023)
What are the ethics of using artificial intelligence in higher education? This Future Trends Forum continues our collaborative exploration of emerging AI with a splendid guest, Donald Clark, a lifelong educational technology innovator and teacher, entrepreneur, CEO, professor, author of Artificial Intelligence for Learning, and blogger.
How can higher education grapple with artificial intelligence? The Future Trends Forum explores this question with a focus on an underdiscussed aspect: open source AI. Computer scientist Ruben R. Puentedura, widely known as the creator of the SAMR framework for understanding the intersection of teaching and tech, leads the discussion.
AI, Equity, and Equity (Future Trends Forum; June 2023)
Unlocking the Power of AI: How Tools Like ChatGPT Can Make Teaching Easier and More Effective (Webinar; Harvard Business Publishing; SU23)
How might Higher Education Respond to AI? Future Trends Forum (March 2023):
The AI Dilemma—Center for Humane Technology (March 2023) *Editor’s Recommendation–a Must-Watch Presentation
From Pearson:
ChatGPT Panel Discussion: SUNY Albany (Jan. 31, 2023):
More Podcasts:
Suspicions, Cheating, and Bans: AI Hits American’s Schools Includes interviews with students. Very interesting. *Site Editor’s Recommendation (NYTimes; June 28)
On Campus Podcast – AI in Higher Education (Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI); April 19, 2023) Focuses on potential biases and inaccuracies with AI and implications for faculty.
Bryan Alexander, Ed Tech Futurist, on AI in Higher Education (Inside Higher Ed; April 9, 2023)
ChatGPT and Good Intentions in Higher Ed An argument against using ChatGPT (Teaching in Higher Ed; Feb. 2023)
ChatGPT: Tea for Teaching A discussion about how generative AI might be used in writing-heavy classes. (Feb. 2023)
‘Everybody is cheating’: Why This Teacher Has Adopted an Open ChatGPT Policy (NPR; Jan. 2023)