Inaugural Meeting

The AI Thought Exchange was officially launched on Friday 21st June in a meeting that discussed the past, present and possible future of AI in higher education. Chaired by Dr Isabel Fischer, three presentations led to a discussion of implications for HEIs in a range of countries. Our thanks to Dominik Lukeš, Dr. René Moolenaar, and Dr Isabel Fischer, for these presentations.

First reviewing the rapid development of AI, there are clear indications that a major upheaval in assessment is imminent, posing complex challenges for higher education institutions. Please click to view this presentation

Taking the specific example of formative feedback, our presenters shared their experiences to date using newly published APIs to built custom chatbots to answer student queries, and even review claims or plans. This implementation of Chat-GPT specifically focuses on conceptual metaphors.

A screenshot of a AI LLM bot to discuss conceptual metaphors

It is also possible to train GPT LLMs on your own content. To demonstrate, Dominik has published his entire slide deck on AI dating back to 2019, and links to a GPT interface which allows users to ‘chat’ with this content.

Secondly, Dr. René Moolenaar shared his experience of building a bespoke student focussed GPT (in ChatGPT 4): entitled ‘René’s Marketing Companion’. Designed as an additional source of help/guidance for students, to complement existing sources of help and was trained on his own slides with no use of internet sources.