Honours students develop their own AI assistants in new course
In a new FSW Honours College course students from various academic disciplines dive into the world of artificial intelligence (AI). The course, 'Artificial Intelligence: Understand and Create' was designed by Marc Cleiren and Pieter Pierrot to be accessible to all students, regardless of their prior programming experience, making it a unique and inclusive learning opportunity.
The course offers students a comprehensive understanding of AI, combining theoretical knowledge with practical application. Marc Cleiren explains, “This course encourages students to team up and create AI assistants that can facilitate their academic journey, fostering collaboration and creativity.”
Experiment
This hands-on approach allows students to experiment with different ways of creating AI tools and receive feedback from their peers, helping them refine their projects. Cleiren: “This happens, for example, during role-plays in which students step into the shoes of, say, a teacher, an ethicist or a member of the examination board. They examine the created AI assistant and its usability from their perspective.”
Complexities
One of the primary goals of the course is to help students understand the complexities of AI. Tom, one of the students, says: "It's not only about coding. It's mostly about understanding how AI works and what the different processes are, which allows us to understand all the different stakes around it."
Ethics
The course also aims to foster a sense of responsibility among students. Cleiren: "As they develop their AI assistant, they question whether it is useful for them or the teachers, in a productive way. Not for cheating or cutting corners, but rather to help them learn or teach more efficiently." This focus on ethical considerations helps students develop a balanced perspective on the use of AI in education.
Impressed
The final meeting of the course was attended by a distinguished guest: Jaap van den Herik, emeritus professor of Legal Informatics and co-founder of the Benelux Association for Artificial Intelligence (BNVK). Van den Herik was very impressed with the students' final presentations: "These students have not studied computer science or advanced mathematics, but they are naturally enthusiastic about what technology offers them. I listened to them with great admiration and I am glad that I could be here."
Student's opinion
Students who have taken the course have found it to be a valuable and enriching experience.
Agata Lukoszek: "I decided to take this course because I feel like AI is a very progressive field, and it's good to have some knowledge in that. And I also wanted to do something a bit different from what I study every day. It's a very nice break and also a very interesting field to discover."
Mischa de Jong: “I didn't know much about AI beyond ChatGPT and sci-fi movies. I've learned about the way it works and also how much we don't know. If you have any interest in AI or technology in general, and particularly if you're interested in how AI and society interact, I think this is definitely the course to take."
Questions?
Want to know more about this course? Email honoursfsw@fsw.leidenuniv.nl.