Michael Klymkowsky, a professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, has developed two AI bots to help students learn: Dewey and Rita.

In his classroom at CU Boulder, Dewey and Rita can act like tutors, analyzing answers and even providing feedback on how Klymkowsky can improve his teaching.

“It seems likely that (AI) policing efforts will ultimately be futile,” Klymkowsky said. “We want to incentivize students to use AI tools to improve learning and achieve the grades and goals they want and need.”

Artificial intelligence or AI is a technology that enables machines and computers to perform complex tasks and mimic human intelligence and behavior. CU Boulder hosted a virtual presentation on Wednesday about how the university is using AI.

Klymkowsky, a professor of molecular cell and developmental biology, created Dewey and Rita using a type of AI called Retrieval-Augmented Generation.

This type of AI is more accurate, Klymkowsky said, because it is equipped with curriculum information, textbooks and research papers that create a knowledge base. The AI ​​draws from this information base and knows what it cannot answer. So there is no speculation or hallucination. AI hallucinations occur when a bot generates false or misleading information.

“This has the advantage that it doesn’t answer questions it hasn’t been trained to answer, whereas a standard ChatGPT answers any question,” he said.

Dewey can evaluate students’ responses to questions and identify trends in what students are missing or misunderstanding. It can also be determined whether the learning objectives of the course are being achieved.

“We can get an overview of the ideas that students are struggling with and we can even get suggestions for improving instruction,” Klymkowsky said.

Rita is an AI bot that acts as a Socratic tutor. Socratic teaching or tutoring is a strategy for promoting critical thinking by giving students questions rather than answers.

Rita is a more sophisticated bot, Klymkowsky said, because she has to engage with the students. He said she can usually determine whether a question has been answered correctly and ask students questions about what is missing or incorrect in their answers. She is improving at having Socratic conversations with students.