Last November, the public gained access to ChatGPT, and by winter, academia had taken notice — the first term papers had been written by ChatGPT, the first students faced related academic integrity violation hearings, the first wave of articles and opinions from academics circulated widely and the first AI-related language appeared in syllabi. While Linfield has seen some instances of academic integrity violations involving the use of generative AI, the scale of the issue has not been extreme.
The broader Linfield community should prepare for a seismic change that will bring generative AI technology fully front-and-center by the end of 2023 — the integration of the ChatGPT-like Copilot in all Microsoft 365 products.
When Copilot is fully integrated within Microsoft products, every student and staffer (and most working professionals) will have access to AI tools at their fingertips, and all positive and negative consequences of using AI will be amplified.
Copilot is a fascinating tool. Based on reports, individuals can ask it in simple language to complete a variety of tasks, such as listening to a recording and generating a synopsis, converting a piece of writing into a PowerPoint presentation with added stock images, or finding and explaining trends in data graphed in Excel. Essentially, it can do anything that ChatGPT can do and more. Unlike ChatGPT, which has a “closed” dataset to work with, Copilot will be able to pull and use data and text stored on Microsoft products like SharePoint and Teams to make its output relevant to the user or company.
I believe the future for Linfield is one where our students learn how to use AI tools ethically and proficiently; where faculty and staff streamline their work with AI tools and guide students to develop relevant skills for use in a world that will very quickly consider AI-related skills essential in most professions.
AI tools are here to stay, and their use will become nearly universal when they are incorporated into Microsoft products. Linfield is fortunate to have faculty and staff devoting significant energy to carefully planning approaches to using AI tools that will positively impact the value of our students’ degrees.
