Generative AI Tools

Applications are now being accepted for a new Artificial Intelligence Virtual Tutor Initiative. This pilot program offers an opportunity to co-develop a Virtual Tutor for use in the fall 2024 term.

The Virtual Tutor will be tailored to your course materials and will leverage AI to provide responses to students based on these materials. We encourage applications from instructors who have a robust corpus of digital course materials and are interested in experimenting with the creation of chat bots for use in teaching and learning activities.

Successful applicants will have the operational costs for their Virtual Tutor and staff time for co-development covered by this program for one full production semester. Please note that applications will be accepted until July 2, 2024.

For additional information on this initiative and a link to the application form, please visit the Artificial Intelligence Virtual Tutor Program information page.

For more information contact digital.learning@utoronto.ca. 

Are you interested in learning how generative AI works? A good introduction is provided by the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society’s “What are LLMs and generative AI? A beginners’s guide to the technology turning heads”. You could also consider:

The responses you receive from a generative AI tool depend on the prompts you enter, and the further refining of these prompts, which takes practice. As Ethan Mollick said, “The lesson is that just using AI will teach you how to use AI.” (Working with AI: Two Paths to Prompting) To get started, we recommend you consider the following.

Be clear about what you want. Include detailed information in your prompt, including the desired format. “Write a paragraph about…” “Create an image containing…” Suggest a particular style (e.g., an academic essay or lab report) and include specific information you want to include (e.g., provide an outline or ordered steps for the prompt).   

• If you’re not sure how to describe the style you want to emulate, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania suggests pasting in a text example you like and asking the tool to describe the style Use that description in your own prompt for style.  

Be critical 

• Does the tool output meet your needs? What additional information is required? Generative AI is an interactive tool. Try different options and prompts to gauge the results, clear the prompt screen and try again. You will learn to refine your prompts and better discern what is most effective with practice.  
• Generative AI tools can provide quick results that may appear correct, but looks can be deceiving. Tools such as ChatGPT can produce hallucinations or misleading and factually incorrect text. As with any text or visual analysis, we need to examine the results with a critical eye.   

Currently, Microsoft Copilot is the recommended generative AI tool to use at U of T. When a user signs in using University credentials, Microsoft Copilot conforms to U of T’s privacy and security standards (i.e., does not share any data with Microsoft or any other company).

It is also free to use. Microsoft Copilot uses OpenAI’s GPT-4 model and performs comparably to ChatGPT. For more information about Copilot, refer to our Copilot Tool Guide.

Microsoft Copilot is a general-purpose chatbot. With thoughtful prompting, it can be used for many teaching and learning purposes (e.g., see Ethan and Lilach Mollick’s More Useful Things site for a comprehensive prompt library). However, many other educational generative AI chatbots and tools are being developed that incorporate pre-defined prompts out of the box.

Contact North is a not-for-profit, Government of Ontario-supported organization that has developed two generative AI teaching and learning tools (also based on OpenAI’s GPT-4 model), both of which conform to U of T’s privacy and security standards for use with level one and level two data:

• AI Teacher’s Assistant Pro guides instructors though AI-assisted syllabus and teaching resource creation
• AI Tutor Pro is a resource for students to build and test their knowledge

Other tools that conform to U of T’s privacy and security standards will be referenced here as they become available.