Staff Notices

Dear UWI Colleagues,

ChatGPT was launched as a prototype on November 30, 2022.  When prompted, it can generate contracts, computer code, essays, lectures and poems among other things. Similar generative artificial-intelligence systems allow users to create music and make art. Since its launch, rapid adoption, rapid improvements and the launch or proposed launch of similar products, the implications of ChatGPT and similar Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven products for higher education has become a major discussion point. Higher education is still trying to comprehend the scope of its likely impact on teaching and research and how it should respond.

Whatever one’s views on ChatGPT and similar AI tools a number of important questions arise.  Is AI training now an essential element of digital literacy? Should instructors be redesigning their assignments and tests to reduce the likelihood that students will present the work of AI as their own? What guidance should students receive about this technology, given that one professor might ban AI tools and another encourage their use? Do academic-integrity policies need to be rewritten? Is it OK to use AI detectors? Should new coursework on AI be added and, if so, what form should it take?

The UWI is fully engaged on these issues and as part of this engagement the Board for Undergraduate Studies shares this UNESCO document as a basic primer on ChatGPT and Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education.

C. Justin Robinson

Professor of Finance

Pro Vice-Chancellor and Chair, Board for Undergraduate Studies

The University of the West Indies