Some classes at the University of Maryland now use artificial intelligence chatbots released by this university’s Division of Information Technology.
The bots, piloted last spring, are similar in function to well-known chatbots such as ChatGPT, according to business professor Michael Kimbrough. The chatbots can answer questions about the syllabus, course structure and class material.
The 10 chatbot-assisted courses offered this semester include business, computer science and engineering classes, according to Maryland Today.
Many well-known chatbots can present misinformation concerns when getting information from publicly available sources on the internet. But this university’s chatbots have a limited database of knowledge restricted to the information given to them by professors, according to Zeinab Karake, a business professor specializing in information systems.
Professors upload course material to a Google Drive folder with a “one-to-one mapping” connection to a chatbot, Karake explained. This ensures that the information from the chatbot is restricted to the materials provided by the professor.