AI in academia

By Kseniya Kalaur,

Published November 15, 2024 at 2:32 PM EST

Four people wearing headphones sit at a table in a radio talk studio: a woman at foreground left has long brown hair and is wearing a green and black scarf, black long-sleeved sweater, jeans and brown boots; a woman at background left has long dark hair and is wearing a red sweater; a man at background right has short grey hair and is wearing glasses and a green button-down shirt; a woman at foreground right has long blonde hair and is wearing a white sweatshirt, jeans and red and white sneakers.

1 of 2 — (foreground) Sarah Cedeño, (background) Samiya Yesmin and Dan Keating with guest host Kseniya Kalaur on "Connections"

(foreground) Sarah Cedeño, (background) Samiya Yesmin and Dan Keating with guest host Kseniya Kalaur on "Connections with Evan Dawson" on Friday, November 15, 2024

Julie Williams / WXXI News

A woman with short blonde hair and glasses is wearing a green scarf and grey cardigan sweater.

2 of 2 — Headshot_Gegg-Harrison.jpg

Whitney Gegg-Harrison

J. Adam Fenster / Provided

A young woman with long blonde hair sits in front of a microphone in a radio talk studio. — Guest host Kseniya Kalaur on "Connections with Evan Dawson" on Friday, August 26, 2024

According to Digital Academia Council’s “Global AI Student Survey 2024”, 86 percent of students claim to use artificial intelligence (AI) in their studies – for everything from searching for information, checking grammar, summarizing and paraphrasing documents, and creating first drafts.

59 percent of students surveyed say that universities should increase the use of AI in teaching and learning. 73 percent of the students think that universities should provide training for faculty in the effective use of AI tools.

So what does generative AI really mean for academia? WXXI’s Kseniya Kalaur discusses the question with our guests:

Dan Keating, clinical assistant professor and faculty director of academic support for the Simon Business School at the University of Rochester
Samiya Yesmin, MBA class of 2026 at the Simon Business School at the University of Rochester
Sarah Cedeño, lecturer in the Department of English at SUNY Brockport
Whitney Gegg-Harrison, Ph.D., associate professor at the University of Rochester, who has a background in computational linguistics and brain and cognitive sciences