Arizona State University soft launched a web app earlier this month that allows anyone, for $5 per month, to create an apparently unlimited number of customized \u201clearning modules\u201d using artificial intelligence. The AI chatbot, called Atom, uses online instructional materials from ASU professors to create a course that\u2019s tailored to the goals, interests and skill level of the user. After asking a handful of questions and processing for about five minutes, Atom debuts a personalized course that includes readings, quizzes and videos from a half dozen experts at ASU. <\/p>\n
But several professors whose content Atom pulls from were surprised to learn that their materials\u2014including video lectures, slide decks and online assignments\u2014were being perused, clipped and repackaged for these short online course modules. The faculty wasn\u2019t told anything about the app, ASU Atomic, they said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was really taken aback to see my face looking back at me a few moments later,\u201d said Chris Hanlon, a literature professor at ASU. After learning about Atomic, he prompted the AI to create a module on the history of literary critique\u2014something he knew a lot about. He called the result \u201cFrankensteinian.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cOne video of me was very modified from its original form\u2014it was something I had uploaded to Canvas a long time ago. And then I saw many other videos of other faculty members\u00a0\u2026 and I contacted them all. Not one of them told me that they had been consulted about this. They never heard of Atomic.\u201d <\/p>\n
Faculty concern over the web app highlights ever-present questions about how universities are deploying AI: Where does its seemingly infinite knowledge come from, who owns it and who will benefit from it? And what control, if any, do professors have over how their course materials are co-opted by AI tools and the university officials who sanction them? <\/p>\n
At a recent faculty Q&A with ASU president Michael Crow, a faculty member asked about Atomic. Crow seemed surprised by the question, said Michael Ostling, a religious studies professor who attended the meeting. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe did say that this is an experiment and it\u2019s early stages,\u201d Ostling said. \u201cHe was understanding that this was not really ready for prime time. It hadn\u2019t been evaluated yet. It was not being promoted intensively\u2014at least not yet. And he said\u00a0\u2026 that the question [about] curriculum is legitimate.\u201d <\/p>\n