In a sense, education has been impacted by artificial intelligence (AI) for years. The basic idea is found in the algorithms of computer programs that started moving into higher education with personal computers in the 1970s, followed by the Internet in the 1980s, the World Wide Web in the 1990s, social media platforms in the 2000s, and mobile computers (primarily smartphones) in the 2010s. Each new digital computer innovation brought more AI into the classroom and the student-teacher relationship, changing the nature of learning, work, and communicating.

Now comes the impact of generative AI, resulting from years of research into machine learning. Generative AI uses large language models (LLMs) to replicate a sense of understanding human languages and communicating patterns. Trained to analyze and spot patterns in large databases of written, spoken, and visual languages, the AI can then respond to requests or prompts depending on the database used to build the LLM. This database can be online, built on or offline, built on a private user’s databases. Such LLMs can be built for a specific task, such as analyzing a patient’s history of medical records to find a diagnosis, or can have a more general purpose, such as chatbots like ChatGPT or Google Gemini that can answer questions, search online, and produce full academic papers. LLMs can be used to power artificial personalities for romantic purposes, or to help librarians find resources based on a patron’s obscure keywords.

As such AI becomes more powerful, ubiquitous, and accessible, it will likely have impacts on education that is a culmination of the computer revolution that started decades ago. These generative AI programs can act as agents, more limited than human agents, but none-the-less more autonomous and potentially self-learning for exponential growth. If educators and educational institutions are not aware and involved in this latest aspect of the computer revolution, then they may find for-profit interests overtaking them and their role in preparing people for the future.

This collection of webpages provide information that can help educators and educational institutions be involved.

If you have any suggestions for what could be added to these pages, then please contact me, Dr. CarrieLynn D. Reinhard, at carrielynn.reinhard@dickinsonstate.edu.

If you are interested in my personal/professional thoughts on AI in education, here is a speech I gave in August, 2024, at Dominican University.

And, yes, the featured image for this page was created with the generative AI built into the WordPress platform. It’s just that easy…and will be just that common.