Large Language Models which use trained AI systems to mimic human writing pose a wide range of challenges and opportunities.
Of particular concern in an academic environment is the use of these tools to mimic human essay writing. This was made evident by the release of ChatGPT in November 2022 and swiftly followed by a host of competitor systems. Tools to auto-generate prose will only become more streamlined and common place to all. For example, Grammarly added an AI writing function this week, and a beta version of an AI tool is now available in some versions of MS Office products. These tools are good at basic, repetitive writing tasks or to critique existing written narratives. Several faculty have already begun use of these tools in curriculum planning, survey evaluation and other phases of their work. Our students have also begun using these tools in a variety of ways with both positive and negative implications.
A college wide collaboration, jointly sponsored by the School of Education and Human Services, the Canisius Writing Center, the Center for Online Learning and Innovation and the Canisius Center for Analytics and Data Ecosystems, will be developing a set of workshops for our community on the challenges and opportunities posed by Large Language Models, such as ChatGPT. The goal is to develop some online resources (short videos, blogs, a discussion forum) to support a series of face-to-face workshops in August 2023. This would incorporate speakers and/or panel discussions, as well as informal opportunities to network and discuss both the uses and challenges these tools pose.
We would like to ask members of the Canisius community to self-nominate themselves to an organizing committee to work on the development of both the face-to-face and online portions of this effort. Interested members of the community are asked to contact Mark Gallimore (gallimom@canisius.edu), Tyler Cron-Piatek (gallimom@canisius.edu), Graham Stowe (gallimom@canisius.edu) or Dave Sheets (sheets@canisius.edu).
Submitted by: H. David Sheets, CCADE, Data Analytics, Quantitative Sciences
