COLUMN: Artificial intelligence is transforming all of our subjects, but not necessarily in the same way
As university people, we should take an interest in which skills, academic practices, and human relationships are too valuable to be replaced by technology, while also being willing to use it where it teaches us something and where it can enhance the quality of what we do, writes Arts Dean Maja Horst in her column.
THE SENIOR MANAGEMENT TEAM COLUMN IN OMNIBUS
The nine members of the senior management team take it in turns to write the senior management team’s Omnibus column. The columnist chooses the topic, and all the opinions expressed in the piece are the columnist’s own.
The senior management team contributes content on the same terms as all other Omnibus authors of columns, articles or opinion pieces.
The views expressed in this column are the author’s own.
Would you like to join the debate?
- Send your content to omnibus@au.dk
This is an opinion piece; the views expressed in the column are the writer’s own.
When we talk about artificial intelligence at the university, the conversation quickly turns to rules: What are researchers and students allowed to use, when should artificial intelligence be declared, and how do we ensure that an exam still says something about the student's own competences?
These are necessary questions, but perhaps we should start elsewhere and ask what the university should do to ensure that all staff can act knowledgeably in a reality where artificial intelligence is already part of our work.
This became clear to me when I participated in the start-up of AU's new "AI Research Community" in Herning in August, with researchers and staff from all over the university.
Researchers are not asking for a simple yes or no to artificial intelligence. They are already making use of the opportunities, but need tools they can trust, help with data, law and research integrity, and room to experiment.
The same need for room to use professional judgement and to experiment can be found in teaching. Artificial intelligence is transforming all of our subjects, but not necessarily in the same way. Therefore, it is important that the subject areas themselves help determine how and when these technologies should be introduced into degree programmes and teaching.
Students make chatbots better
The need to learn how to make the most of the technology is also evident in administration. This is why, at Arts, we have been working on the development of a chatbot that can help answer some of the routine questions often received by student guidance services and administrative departments, such as questions about deadlines, enrolment and practical regulations.
The aim is to explore how the technology works, how students experience it, and what impact it has on our organisation. It is very important to us that this is a shared learning process and that students are actively involved in testing the technology. This is why we have introduced the option for users to indicate whether they found the answer helpful. All the answers that are marked as unsatisfactory are reviewed by a human to try to understand what went wrong. We use this both to improve the chatbot and to understand how the technology may be relevant in the future.
The chatbot has been designed to refer students to student counsellors, the study centres or other relevant services at AU, where they can receive assistance from a member of staff. The aim is to ensure that staff time is focused on the tasks that only they can carry out, while helping us deliver an even higher overall standard of guidance and support.
A shared responsibility
This example brings us back to the question I began with: What do researchers, students and staff actually need? I believe that, above all, they need the right conditions to experiment for themselves and make informed decisions about artificial intelligence. That requires rules, support, and reliable technologies, but also room to explore and learn from both successes and failures.
This is not made less important by the fact that the development is moving fast. Artificial intelligence has already changed research, teaching, and administration in fundamental ways. That is precisely why we need not only to keep pace with the technology, but also to discuss what it means for the university and for the way we carry out our work. That is why the senior management team is treating artificial intelligence as a central element of the upcoming strategic action plan.
As university people, we should take an interest in which skills, academic practices and human relationships are too valuable to be replaced by technology, while also being willing to use it where it teaches us something and where it can enhance the quality of what we do.
That was also one of the things I took with me from the discussions in Herning: We will not be able to think our way to a single, ready-made model for how the university should use artificial intelligence. We need to try things out, discuss what we learn from them, and make adjustments along the way.
The university is well equipped for this. But that requires us to approach it as a shared responsibility, rather than something that individual members of staff or students are left to work out on their own.
This text is machine translated and post-edited by Mie Skov Jeppesen.