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Title: 'Welcome to Campus. Here's Your ChatGPT.'

Link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/06/08/0239...

The New York Times reports: California State University announced this year
that it was making ChatGPT available to more than 460,000 students across its
23 campuses to help prepare them for "California's future A.I.-driven
economy." Cal State said the effort would help make the school "the nation's
first and largest A.I.-empowered university system..." Some faculty members
have already built custom chatbots for their students by uploading course
materials like their lecture notes, slides, videos and quizzes into ChatGPT.
And other U.S. campuses including the University of Maryland are also
"working to make A.I. tools part of students' everyday experiences,"
according to the article. It's all part of an OpenAI initiative "to overhaul
college education - by embedding its artificial intelligence tools in every
facet of campus life." The Times calls it "a national experiment on millions
of students." If the company's strategy succeeds, universities would give
students A.I. assistants to help guide and tutor them from orientation day
through graduation. Professors would provide customized A.I. study bots for
each class. Career services would offer recruiter chatbots for students to
practice job interviews. And undergrads could turn on a chatbot's voice mode
to be quizzed aloud ahead of a test. OpenAI dubs its sales pitch "A.I.-native
universities..." To spread chatbots on campuses, OpenAI is selling premium
A.I. services to universities for faculty and student use. It is also running
marketing campaigns aimed at getting students who have never used chatbots to
try ChatGPT... OpenAI's campus marketing effort comes as unemployment has
increased among recent college graduates - particularly in fields like
software engineering, where A.I. is now automating some tasks previously done
by humans. In hopes of boosting students' career prospects, some universities
are racing to provide A.I. tools and training... [Leah Belsky, OpenAI's vice
president of education] said a new "memory" feature, which retains and can
refer to previous interactions with a user, would help ChatGPT tailor its
responses to students over time and make the A.I. "more valuable as you grow
and learn." Privacy experts warn that this kind of tracking feature raises
concerns about long-term tech company surveillance. In the same way that many
students today convert their school-issued Gmail accounts into personal
accounts when they graduate, Ms. Belsky envisions graduating students
bringing their A.I. chatbots into their workplaces and using them for life.
"It would be their gateway to learning - and career life thereafter," Ms.
Belsky said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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