By Carrie Levinson, MSLIS

Every month, our AI blog will provide a selection of literature on artificial intelligence in teaching and learning. Here’s the roundup for September 2023:


Coffey L. Risks and rewards as higher ed invests in an AI future. Inside Higher Ed [Internet]. 2023 Sep 5. Available from: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-innovation/artificial-intelligence/2023/09/05/risks-and-rewards-higher-ed-should-know

Excerpt: "Higher ed funding—and a lot of it—is flowing into AI as institutions make big bets that artificial intelligence will be as universal and disruptive as the internet. Institutions across the country are spending vast sums, hiring dozens of faculty and erecting large-scale AI-focused centers. But even as colleges and universities boldly dive into the AI deep end, industry experts and analysts are urging caution and thoughtful approaches, both for institutions rushing ahead and those at risk of being left on the sidelines."

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Gutkin L. The Review: ChatGPT robs students of something essential. The Chronicle of Higher Education [Internet]. 2023 Sep 5. Available from: https://www-chronicle-com.eresources.mssm.edu/newsletter/the-review/2023-09-05

Excerpt: "What ChatGPT does to students is even worse than what it’s done to professors. It diminishes their access to the special kind of living with texts that only writing can make happen."

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Baron NS. 5 touch points students should consider about AI. Inside Higher Ed [Internet]. 2023 Sep 6. Available from: https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/career-advice/teaching/2023/09/06/key-questions-ask-students-about-using-ai-their-work

Excerpt: "We need guidelines to help students—and the rest of us—decide when programs like ChatGPT (or Grammarly or Sudowrite) deserve a place in written work that has a human’s name on it. And when those programs don’t."

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McMurtrie B. What Will Determine AI’s Impact on College Teaching? 5 Signs to Watch. The Chronicle of Higher Education [Internet]. 2023 Sep 8. Available from: https://www-chronicle-com.eresources.mssm.edu/article/what-will-determine-ais-impact-on-college-teaching-5-signs-to-watch

Excerpt: "Because the field is fast moving, the impact generative AI will have on teaching in the near term is uncertain. Here are a few key questions we will be asking this fall."

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Clune MW. AI means professors need to raise their grading standards. The Chronicle of Higher Education [Internet]. 2023 Sep 12. Available from: https://www-chronicle-com.eresources.mssm.edu/article/ai-means-professors-need-to-raise-their-grading-standards

Excerpt: "After giving the matter some thought, I believe that two related pre-existing problems in higher education have made a technology that ought to be a useful tool appear to many instructors as an existential threat. The first is the phenomenon of grade inflation. The second is a lack of clarity about what we want from student writing."

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D'Agostino S. Why professors are polarized on AI. Inside Higher Ed [Internet]. 2023 Sep 13. Available from: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-innovation/artificial-intelligence/2023/09/13/why-faculty-members-are-polarized-ai

Excerpt: "Academics who perceive threats to education from AI band together as a survival mechanism. The resulting alliances echo divisions formed during online learning’s emergence."

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Staiman A. Publishers, don't use AI detection tools! 2023 Sep 14. In: Society for Scholarly Publishing. Scholarly Kitchen [Internet]. Mount Laurel, NJ: Society for Scholarly Publishing. Available from: https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2023/09/14/publishers-dont-use-ai-detection-tools

Excerpt: "The fundamental assumption underlying the creation of AI detection tools seems to be that AI writing should be able to be detected the same way that plagiarism is detected. However, there is a critical distinction: plagiarism simply looks for exact matches with existing works, an objective criterion that can be identified, measured, and replicated. AI writing, on the other hand, is original in its own right (even if drawn from unoriginal sources), and can’t be easily traced to its source. My opposition to scholarly publishers relying on detection tools stems from both pragmatic and ideological reasons. Let’s start with some of the pragmatic issues."


Warner J. If ChatGPT can do it, it’s not worth doing. Inside Higher Ed [Internet]. 2023 Sep 20. Available from: https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/blogs/just-visiting/2023/09/20/chatgpt-shows-way-toward-our-own-humanity

Excerpt: "...if a large language model (like ChatGPT or its brethren) can generate a product similar to or better than humans on the same writing task, that writing task is not worth doing.

And to be clear, I’m not talking about the writing task not being worth doing by the humans and simply outsourcing it to the AI. I’m saying it isn’t worth doing at all."

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Schroeder J. Preparing students for the AI-enhanced workforce. Inside Higher Ed [Internet]. 2023 Sep 15. Available from: https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/blogs/online-trending-now/2023/09/15/preparing-students-ai-enhanced-workforce

Excerpt: "The common adage repeated again and again is that AI will not take your job; a person with AI skills will replace you. The learners we are teaching this fall who will be entering, re-entering or seeking advancement in the workforce at the end of the year or in the spring must become demonstrably skilled in using generative AI."

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Barron J. How A.I. increased the graduation rate at John Jay College by 32 points. New York Times: New York Today [Internet]. 2023 Sep 20. Available from: https://icahn-mssm.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/view/action/uresolver.do?operation=resolveService&package_service_id=2493922350006206&institutionId=6206&customerId=6205&VE=true 

Excerpt: "Dara Byrne was so surprised by the numbers on graduation rates that she triple-checked them. In two years, the graduation rate at John Jay College had jumped 32 percentage points, to 86 percent...Byrne, then the associate provost, credits artificial intelligence — specifically, A.I.-powered software that analyzed things like whether students’ grades were slipping and whether they had signed up for courses that would give them enough credit hours to graduate."

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McMurtrie B. Want your students to be skeptical of ChatGPT? Try this. The Chronicle of Higher Education [Internet]. 2023 Sep 21. Available from: https://www-chronicle-com.eresources.mssm.edu/newsletter/teaching/2023-09-21

Excerpt: "This week I:

  • Share one writing instructor’s experiment with ChatGPT, and the surprising results.
  • Point you to advice pieces and resources on generative AI that you may have missed."

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Coffey L. AI meets med school. Inside Higher Ed [Internet]. 2023 Sep 25. Available from: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-innovation/artificial-intelligence/2023/09/25/ai-meets-med-school-new-dual-degree-program

Excerpt: "Adding to academia’s AI embrace, two institutions in the University of Texas system are jointly offering a medical degree paired with a master’s in artificial intelligence."

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Coffey L. Advisory boards aid in alleviating AI anxiety. Inside Higher Ed [Internet]. 2023 Sep 28. Available from: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-innovation/artificial-intelligence/2023/09/28/higher-ed-ai-anxiety-advisory-board-could

Excerpt: "When it comes to artificial intelligence and higher ed, the excitement and hype are matched by the uncertainties and need for guidance. One solution: creating an AI advisory board that brings together students, faculty and staff for open conversations about the new technology."

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MacArthur MJ. AI, expertise and the convergence of writing and coding. Inside Higher Ed [Internet]. 2023 Sep 28. Available from: https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/views/2023/09/28/ai-and-convergence-writing-and-coding-opinion

Excerpt: "The common challenge in teaching writing and coding is helping students develop professional expertise when access to such expertise has been democratized via AI..."

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Franzen C. OpenAI gives ChatGPT access to the entire internet. VentureBeat [Internet]. 2023 Sep 27. Available from: https://venturebeat.com/ai/openai-gives-chatgpt-access-to-the-entire-internet/

Excerpt: "OpenAI just announced on X (formerly Twitter) that ChatGPT "can now browse the internet to provide you with current and authoritative information, complete with direct links to sources," thanks to an integration with Microsoft’s Bing search engine."