Interim chancellor Eric Wilcots and founding dean of University of Wisconsin-Madison’s new College of Computing and Artificial Intelligence (CAI) Remzi Arpaci-Dusseau presented a measured view of artificial intelligence in higher education at a Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association (WFAA) virtual panel on August 18.
Wilcots and Arpaci-Dusseau both said students should be AI competent when they graduate, but that UW-Madison needs to handle AI’s pervasiveness in college life: cracking down on take-home assessments while navigating emptier classrooms and a “silent spring” on Piazza, a popular classroom forum and social networking tool, as students increasingly turn to chatbots.