Applications and Uses of AI in Higher Education

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to make inroads into virtually every area of life and work, it has opened an entire world of doubts and questions that need to be addressed along the way. How can AI be used as a tool for ensuring better efficiency in the teaching-learning process? What would be the impact of AI on higher education in the short and long terms?

These and other questions were addressed at a day-long workshop at Ahmedabad University, delivered by Abhideep Chakravarty, an accomplished tech professional with expertise in infrastructure and Cloud technologies. The workshop aimed at initiating the faculty and staff of the University into the fundamentals and evolution of AI over the last few years. The comprehensive agenda of the workshop comprised demos, training in various existent and emerging AI models, innovations in backend technologies, and much more!

The participants were asked to work on exercises using popular AI tools, specifically ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. These included writing a short professional bio for Professors and developing a rubric for their courses. The speaker also discussed the evolution of the first, second, and third generations of AI over the last few years, covering emergence of simple programming tools, predictive AI, and a deep dive into technology.

The concluding part of the workshop focused on the foundation model, followed by training on the use of effective prompts to ask specific relevant questions. The discussion also focused on Large Learning Models (LLMs) and Small Learning Models (SLMs), including all the AI tools that have applications at the University level.

Ahmedabad University plans to keep this engagement with AI a continuous learning process, with other such sessions on the anvil for the University fraternity.