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AI in the Academic Setting

Resources and information about generative AI including ChatGPT

Welcome!

Generative AI tool usage and integration into academic and daily life is rapidly evolving.  Please check back here frequently for updated information (last update 5/8/24)!  If you have any comments or suggestions, please contact us at tlrs@oxy.edu

Keep in mind: "...generative A.I., relies on a complex algorithm that analyzes the way humans put words together on the internet. It does not decide what is true and what is not."  When AI Chatbots Hallucinate—The New York Times. (2023, May 8). Archive.Ph. https://archive.ph/07rpm

Generative Artificial Intelligence

What is Generative AI?

  • Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence that has been trained on massive amounts of data from which it "learns" patterns and structures.  It then can generate new data (text, images, etc.) when prompted by a user input. (Generative AI overview from Wikipedia).  It is a subset of deep learning combined with natural language processing.
  • ChatGPT (generative pre-trained transformer) and others like it are powered by Large Language Models(LLM's): A very gentle introduction to large language models without the hype 

Venn diagram illustrating the relationship of large language models to artificial intelligence

Image source: Large language models An introduction to fine tuning and specialization in LLM's

 

What are chatbots?

Chatbot is a generic term for an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that uses natural language processing techniques to respond to user generated prompts.  Chatbots have been created by Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Stanford University to name a few and have been around in some form since the mid 1960's.  Remember ELIZA? 

History of Chatbots Infographic (up until year 2016)

ChatGPT is a chatbot created by OpenAI and was released to the general public as a "research preview" in late 2022.  It is a form of generative AI.  The usage and interest in ChatGPT has been an active subject in the scholarly and news media since then. 

ChatGPT is not a search engine!

GPT-4 was released in March 2023 and now powers ChatGPT Plus (paid version of ChatGPT) and is also integrated into Microsoft 365, the successor to Microsoft Office.  Microsoft calls its generative AI Copilot.  Amazon now has one for the workplace called Amazon Q.

GPT-4 Class Models

There are currently (March 2024) three GPT-4 class models: