From science fiction to classroom reality: How UBC professors are using AI as a teaching tool
24 May, 2023
Hiring a new teaching assistant usually means reading stacks of resumes, conducting interviews, and checking references—but what if they aren’t human?
Meet ChatGPT and GitHub Copilot, two new artificial intelligence-powered teaching assistants (created by OpenAI and Microsoft, respectively) that are ready and available to help third-year engineering physics students at UBC who might be looking for help with their homework or assignments.
While students do have the option of talking to two real-life human TAs in the third-year course, they sometimes need help with a problem afterhours or have a quick question that can be easily answered by the AI TA. Having the option of an AI TA means students can finish their assignment more quickly without getting stuck on a simple question, which also frees up time for the human instructors so they are able to help students with more challenging questions, says instructor Ioan “Miti” Isbasescu.
- Teaching and Learning
- Media release
