Academic AI

A Collection of AI Tools and Prompts for Higher Education

Preface

Welcome to this guide on the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and higher education. This guide is designed to provide educators, administrators, and researchers with a comprehensive understanding of how AI, specifically large language models like GPT-4, can augment our work in the academic world.

Throughout this guide, you will find a wide range of applications spanning tools, teaching, research, and service tasks. From synthesising lifelike speech to automating frequently-used text snippets, or from generating engaging course syllabi to formulating responses to reviewers’ comments effectively, this guide outlines what is possible today.

However, this guide is not a mandate, but an exploration of possibilities. It doesn’t dictate a particular course of action, but lays out a spectrum of opportunities, illustrating what is feasible with AI in our present context. These tools are at your disposal, but their adoption is a choice, one that lies solely in your hands. AI should be an enhancer, not an imposer, allowing you to optimise your work in the way that best suits you. Some find these tools helpful in automating tedious aspects of their work, freeing up time for more fulfilling tasks.

That being said, this guide also introduces certain streamlined workflows that might raise ethical questions. These include, but are not limited to, AI-assisted grading and feedback provision, ethics form completion, automated email responses, crafting social media posts, and creating synthetic versions of faces or voices. Presenting these possibilities is not equivalent to endorsing them. The intent is to inform you of the extent of today’s technology.

It’s crucial to underline that the adoption of these practices requires careful ethical consideration. The aim is not to advocate indiscriminate use of AI, but to foster understanding and dialogue about these tools. You are encouraged to engage with these possibilities, to critically question their implications, and to decide what you are ethically comfortable with. This guide serves as a platform for reflection as much as it does for education.

It’s important to remember that we are still in the early days of AI’s potential. The capabilities of systems like GPT-4 might seem impressive, even revolutionary, but these will soon be the standard, much like how the once-revolutionary first iPhone has now become an antiquated relic. We are on an exponential curve of development, with AI systems rapidly evolving. What these systems are capable of today is just a small glimpse of what they will be able to do in the future.

We stand at a unique turning point in human history. We have an algorithm that can learn from information and gets predictably better with scale. These advancements suggest that the rate of progress and capabilities in the coming years will be significant. It is cool that AI can write poems today, but the future where AI can contribute to solving our biggest challenges, like disease, climate change, and education, is even more exciting.

Creating this guide would not have been possible without the support of ChatGPT. Throughout the development process, I relied heavily on AI, demonstrating its real-world utility and potential. Its assistance made it feasible for me to compile this resource and, more importantly, helped underscore the transformative impact of AI.

So as you peruse this guide, remember that you’re not just reading about AI—you’re experiencing its impact. This is just the beginning of what AI can offer us in higher education, and I hope this guide serves as a useful resource as we continue exploring this brave new world together.