My post in January 2023 was about the launch of ChatGPT which attracted a lot of attention when it premiered a few months earlier. I was asking for a dialogue about how artificial intelligence that generates content and data can be applied in our organisation. Now a year later, our journey with generative AI has begun.
A clear sign of this are our guidelines for teachers and students with the aim of encouraging and supporting responsible and effective use of generative AI. Another sign is the launch of Microsoft Copilot, a risk and vulnerability assessed tool, which is freely available to everyone at our university. The library now offers drop-in support for students, and is testing and evaluating various generative AI tools. The Centre for Teaching and Learning has launched a series of educational activities focusing on “Using Copilot as a personal assistant” and “Chat-GPT & AI: Academic Integration”.
Academic integration and AI is new to me. Put simply, it is about how generative AI can be integrated and applied in academic environments. It can be about improving the quality of education and teaching, effective administration, or increased research capacity. Exciting areas in their own right, with the potential to change the way we work. The downside is a number of risks that must be handled responsibly with a focus on ethical and legal aspects.
To continue our journey, I want to encourage further use of AI, but also careful thought and discussion. Personally, I try to think of Copilot as my assistant. An assistant that can answer questions, summarise texts, brainstorm ideas, find relevant information and translate texts. To develop the way I use the tool, I try to integrate this assistant into my work. The result is that I spend hours with the assistant every week. My take is that the time we spend experimenting and practicing will have an impact on the direction our journey takes.
Generative AI is not just one tool but several. At the moment, we have access to the assistant Copilot and the more we use it, the more we will learn about its strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, we should continue to explore this new assistant: how can the assistant help you in your work? We should also continue to explore what value the assistant adds: does it help you save time, organise your work or provide different perspectives? In the same way we should also explore how the assistant can help our colleagues, students and collaboration partners: can it contribute to an open, mutual and democratic exchange by making information more accessible and lowering the thresholds for participation? Finally, we need to continue exploring risks and ethical issues. Using the assistant responsibly means that we should not create obstacles or reinforce biases in our working environment or in society at large.
We have taken our first tentative steps on this journey with generative AI. How we move forward depends on our knowledge, creativity, courage and ability to work together. On this journey, we should find more forms of collaboration as well as arenas for exchanging experiences and discussing generative AI and academic integration.
