Elizabeth Landers/Kudu via UCLA
The professor behind an AI-generated textbook says his error-ridden experiment was actually a resounding success.
Designed for a comparative literature course on medieval and Renaissance-era writing and announced by UCLA in late 2024, the digital textbook immediately faced widespread derision and derision from teachers. Its AI-generated cover was filled with incomprehensible text – for example, “Nerniacular Latin to an Evulitun on Nance Languages,” and featured generic scenes that had nothing to do with the period it was covering.
At the time, Elizabeth Landers, a graduate student who helped put together the volume, said that errors “are not a failure of AI.” Instead, he argued, “they are a deliberate artistic choice meant to inspire students to question their assumptions about language, meaning, and historical truth.”
now in one new interview with inside higher ed In which the word “hallucinations” is not mentioned even once, course professor Zrinka Stahlja called her decision to use an “AI-assisted” textbook a “no-brainer” because it saved her all the time, helping her be an “approachable and approachable teacher.”
And incredibly, Stahljak says she was surprised that her UCLA colleagues were so skeptical about her AI textbook. She said, “I was really surprised that they couldn’t see that this textbook was my creation; it was carefully edited, as if it had been printed.” I.
He added, “I don’t think that a traditional textbook that costs $250 and is out of date within two years or three years is going to be any better than a $25 custom AI-facilitated textbook that is based on my material.”
The AI textbook was created with Kudu, a platform for creating digital textbooks started by another UCLA professor. Stahljak says he created the textbook by providing his own notes to the AI tool, which was instructed not to pull from outside sources. Students can interact with a built-in chatbot to help them learn the material, though she emphasizes that it wasn’t designed for writing papers or completing assignments. Stahljak also says AI features have made the book more accessible, with some students saying they’ve listened to it while walking or at the gym.
After deploying the AI textbook, Stahljak claimed that “engagement increased” compared to classes that did not use it. And perhaps soberly, he saw it as an improvement To Her students are turning to ChatGPT for help.
“It’s better than some commercial version that has nothing to do with what you’re teaching or pulling information from the Internet,” he said in the interview. “When we are blindly given ChatGPT or other commercial generative AI-powered tools we are losing that control.”
One or two fair points are being made, but Stahuljak isn’t addressing the numerous elephants in the room. AI chatbots are notorious for generating fabricated facts and otherwise providing inaccurate information, no matter what data they are asked for. A significant and still growing body of evidence shows how AI tools can impair critical thinking skills and the ability to pay attention. Then there are widespread concerns over how technology is threatening the existence of educational institutions, as tech companies spend millions of dollars to take over schools and universities and use them to sell their products.
“This is really bad and makes me wonder if we aren’t participating in creating our own replacement at the expense of everyone who cares about teaching and learning,” one English professor wrote on social media after the AI textbook was announced. I.
Others were even more harsh.
“If you do this your doctorate should be revoked and put in the stocks in the center of the main university quad.” angry Another professor. “It’s an abdication of professional responsibility to a degree that would be ridiculous if it weren’t so self-serious.”
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