HKUST encourages use of AI models in lesson plans
As more powerful tools emerge, it will radically change the future of education, academics say
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) is encouraging professors to include ChatGPT and other generative artificial intelligence (AI) models in their lesson plans, as many educators agree that the emerging tech will transform the future of education.
The school has stood out among other local educators in its embrace of new and generative AI technologies, giving staff free rein to create their own guidelines for its use. It is also hoping to award at least US$1.3 million to professors looking to develop generative AI applications within curriculums.
“We want all faculty members to understand that AI is here, and it’s going to have a large impact on the workforce and the skill sets that students need when they graduate,” said Sean McMinn, director of the HKUST Centre for Education Innovation, which helps train faculty members in innovative teaching methods. “Students are already using it, so the question becomes, how can we leverage it for learning and encourage responsible and ethical best practices for both professors and students?”
According to McMinn, most professors have already allowed some class usage of generative AI, which can create content such as text, images, audio, or videos based on a variety of inputs.
With ChatGPT, developed by Microsoft-backed OpenAI, inaccessible from Hong Kong without a VPN connection, the Centre for Education Innovation site directs students to Poe, a service developed by Quora and launched in December 2022 that allows access to a range of AI bots built on top of large language models including some from OpenAI.
One HKUST business professor, Joon Nak Choi, said generative AI would have a number of positive learning outcomes. He is directing one of his business ethics classes to use ChatGPT for their final essays, from helping to come up with essay topics to the actual writing of drafts.
“My goal is to not only for students to familiarise themselves with using ChatGPT, but to prepare them for its successors, which will continue to become far more powerful and integrated with workflow processes.”
Choi, who teaches some machine learning and AI-related courses, said he expected Microsoft 365 Copilot, launched earlier this year, to have an even bigger impact on academic and other work than ChatGPT.
Microsoft 365 Copilot will be integrated into common everyday apps like Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Microsoft Teams, with the software already being used by 600 customers in an early access testing programme.
“As with many of the new technologies of the past decades, these generative AI tools will increase the sheer amount of information students can access and will enable them to perform at a higher level,” Choi said. He added that the expectations for academic performance would rise and that students would also be responsible for learning how to avoid and correct the chatbot’s biases and shortcomings.
Dr Ben Yui Bun Chan, an engineering professor at HKUST, said ChatGPT had benefited his students, particularly when it came to projects that required research on new and complex topics. “AI can quickly summarise and explain information, so students can spend less time in the research and learning stage of an assignment and more time focusing on creative problem-solving, critical thinking and strategy,” Chan said.
Higher education institutions in the city have evolved their approach to ChatGPT-like services.
The University of Hong Kong first banned ChatGPT in February, but then allowed its lecturers and staff to use ChatGPT under new guidelines released in April.
The Chinese University of Hong Kong is allowing the new technology to be used in lectures, but said students would need permission from tutors before using it and that turning in assignments done with ChatGPT would constitute plagiarism.
There are clear risks with the new technology. The HKUST professors stressed that while the technology has benefits, some students may learn to rely on it too much and use it as a crutch.
“It’s very good at completing simple assignments, but when it comes to major real-world problems, they will find that AI will not simply solve it for them directly,” Chan said. “It is important for them to understand the limitations of AI and then move onto figuring out how to work with it.”