UNC uses AI to help students learn, including about uses of AI

The tool is now growing in acceptance at places like the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It offers potential benefits as well as possible pitfalls of the technology.

It was just two years ago when OpenAI's Chat-GPT was released. The tool opens a chatbot, which uses natural language processing to answer questions in a human-like dialogue.

Now UNC professors and students are incorporating it into some classes. UNC English professor Daniel Anderson said, “Over time, using it, people have realized that it's very helpful for some things, but for others, it's not.”

Anderson calls it "AI Literacy." Students learn how to use AI in their research and writing while avoiding problems like plagiarism and misinformation.

“So, we have to show students how to navigate all of that and it's somewhat similar to the concerns they had if they were writing a research paper before the invention of AI,” Anderson said.

Some students are fluent in the use of AI, while others may be afraid to try, said UNC teaching librarian Dayna Durbin.

“And so, giving them that background in the basics of how these tools work, I think, is important,“ Durbin said.

Durbin guides students in the use of AI tools to find resources like news articles and social media posts.

“So, I always view AI as a tool to help me think more efficiently, but not replace me, the human being,” Durbin said.

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Anderson said, “If you're doing this in a healthy way, you don't just take what the AI spits out to you and say, 'great, I've got what I need.' It gives you something to evaluate.”

Anderson says the rules remain the same as before – never use the work of someone else to pass off as your own.

As students become more fluent in AI use, Anderson expects they will be better prepared for how the tool evolves in just a few years from now.