COLUMBUS, Ohio — Inside Vince Castillo’s classroom, The Ohio State University professor is embracing the sudden rise of artificial intelligence.

What You Need To Know

  • Artificial intelligence is on the rise 

  • Starting this semester, OSU has added an AI fluency initiative that includes AI education as part of every undergraduate curriculum

  • Professor Vince Castillo created his own AI assistant called Supply Chain Brutus 

“It’s like toothpaste that’s already out of the tube. It’s not going back in,” Castillo said.

Kunsh Puranik took Castillo’s class last semester. He’s a senior studying logistics management and international business. 

“I remember that AI was just something that popped up back in 2023, I think, and it wasn’t even a year, and one of our professors in the logistics department started integrating it in our classroom. His name is Dr. Castillo,” Puranik said.

“At the bottom, we have these citations— chapter two, chapter three. That’s the evidence that it’s actually going into my textbook… hey can even click on the reference, and it pulls out the specific chapters and sections,” Castillo said.

Starting this semester, OSU has added an AI fluency initiative that includes AI education as part of every undergraduate curriculum.

It’s something Castillo said is exciting. 

“Now it’s on us, the university, but also to an extent the students to come together and figure out what does it mean to learn and teach in this new age of artificial intelligence,” Castillo said.

When Puranik was in Castillo’s class last semester, he said the AI assistant supply chain Brutus was a helpful tool. 

“It’s sort of there to help us, guide us through assignments,” he said. “It does a lot of, its really good at coding. It’s really good at analysis, and its also there to help us as a resource to learn when maybe the professor is not able to answer our questions, ike I’ve definitely used it past midnight a couple times,” Puranik said.

But it comes with its risks, and it doesn’t do all the work.

“At the end of the day, you also need to make sure that what it’s giving out is applicable to the problem at hand. So that’s why it’s an important step, but it’s not something that finishes the assignment for you,” Puranik said.

Along with risks, Castillo said he has his concerns. 

“The cost of AI, like carbon emissions and some of the hallucinations that AI still has, but being fluent in AI is about understanding these tradeoffs and learning how to use AI to become a better expert in the area that you’ve chosen,” Castillo said.

But overall, Castillo said he’s spoken to professors who are looking forward to incorporating AI into their lessons, and the students are happy to be a part of it. 

“It gets hours of work done in minutes like I mentioned so it’s more like who doesn’t like using AI?” Puranik said.

But Puranik said you have to know exactly what to ask it for it to be a useful tool.