Q&A
Potential use of AI and chatbots in CUNY transfer student advisement
1:36:18
·
103 sec
Council Member Eric Dinowitz and Eli Dvorkin discuss the potential use of AI and chatbots to assist with course alignment and student advisement in the transfer process at CUNY. Dvorkin expresses optimism about the technology's potential but notes challenges in implementation.
- CUNY is doing some important work in this space, but may be behind other institutions
- AI-powered tools show promise for significantly better results compared to previous technologies
- Additional investment and focused attention will be needed for CUNY to effectively implement these innovations
- Dvorkin is optimistic about the potential of AI and chatbots but emphasizes the need for sustained implementation at scale
Eric Dinowitz
1:36:18
And have and send a fervent future given thought to or have an opinion on the use of AI and chatbots to either help figure out how courses are aligned or to help students interact with advisement.
Eli Dvorkin
1:36:35
Yes.
1:36:35
Absolutely.
1:36:36
So we've given some thought to this and had some conversations about this.
1:36:39
I'm encouraged.
1:36:39
I think there's a lot of potential here.
1:36:41
CUNY is doing some some important work in the space.
1:36:44
I think I did hear on the previous panel, though, the sort of expression of candidly, maybe Kenny feels a little behind.
1:36:49
You know?
1:36:50
And I think that's important to note.
1:36:51
I mean, there is a of investment is gonna be needed to be able to actually, you know, implement what maybe is an early stage pilot program, an algorithm that a faculty member has developed to be able actually build it out so that it's effective across CUNY.
1:37:04
That's a huge opportunity, but it's not cheap, you know, that comes with with real cost in terms of people, the time that people have to take to invest in these kinds of initiatives, the resources, you know, technological and otherwise.
1:37:15
So I'm incredibly encouraged here, the Quni's making progress there.
1:37:18
I've seen other examples at Quni and elsewhere of AI powered tools.
1:37:22
They're actually delivering results that are well beyond what kind of previous generations of those same tools, like nudges that you heard about before.
1:37:29
You know, there was a you know, we may know this well of the chair.
1:37:31
It's like, the idea of the effectiveness of those nudge tools in the area of just text messaging, it had a moment.
1:37:36
It then kind of faded.
1:37:37
And I think the perception from a lot of researchers was it works, but it's it's a marginal change.
1:37:43
New tools, I mean, emerging tools that are AI powered, we're talking about orders of magnitude better results.
1:37:48
Now that we haven't seen that sustained at scale, you know, over time.
1:37:52
But I'm optimistic, and that's a major opportunity.
1:37:54
But what I heard loud and clearly is that CUNY is gonna need additional investment and focused attention to make sure that those innovations are are implemented.