OpenAI has its first higher education customer: Arizona State University (ASU).
Today, ASU announced it is partnering with OpenAI to bring ChatGPT, OpenAI’s artificial intelligence chatbot, to the university’s researchers, staff and faculty.
Beginning in February, ASU will hold an open challenge to invite faculty and staff to submit ideas for ways to use ChatGPT — with a focus on student success. new avenues for research and streamlining of organizational processes.
“As OpenAI begins to explore how to advance or align an enterprise for universities, they’re looking for a design partner, a thought partner, and I think that’s an important measure of why we’ve come together today to make this announcement.” Lev Gonick, ASU’s chief information officer, told TechCrunch in an email interview. “Partnering with OpenAI ensures that ASU will be actively involved in defining new uses for Gen AI in higher education.”
The OpenAI-ASU agreement illustrates the changing views on AI in education, as technology advances faster than curricula can keep up.
Last summer, schools and colleges rushed to ban ChatGPT due to plagiarism and misinformation fears. Since then, some have vice versa their bans, while others have begun hosting workshops on AI production tools and their potential for learning.
ASU—not surprisingly—is firmly in the camp of AI as a tool for educational good.
“THE Open The call to faculty, staff and researchers ensures that we can provide ongoing and meaningful support that lays the foundation for our teams to harness the true potential of these technologies to enhance human learning and creativity, not replace it.” , Gonick said. “This approach is part of a strategic plan to pave the way for our students by ensuring that we expand the use of All included in a responsible and scalable way across the university. Our goal is to foster an environment where All included resources are used efficiently and ethically, laying the groundwork for the wider integration of these technologies into our academic community.”
Specifically, ASU will provide ChatGPT Enterprise accounts to its full-time employees. ChatGPT Enterprise, released in August, can perform the same tasks as ChatGPT, such as composing emails, debugging computer code, and writing essays. But it also adds privacy and data analytics capabilities on top of vanilla ChatGPT, as well as improved performance and customization options.
For example, ChatGPT Enterprise offers an admin console with tools to manage how people in an organization use ChatGPT. Shareable chat templates allow users to build internal workflows leveraging ChatGPT, while credits for OpenAI’s API platform allow organizations to build custom solutions powered by ChatGPT.
In addition, ChatGPT Enterprise has priority access to ChatGPT and unlimited access to Advanced Data Analysis, a ChatGPT feature that allows users to analyze data with artificial intelligence, create graphs, solve math problems and more, including from files that have uploaded.
Gonick says ASU will play a “dual role” in managing ChatGPT Enterprise accounts and participating in efforts related to supporting and “effectively using” AI.
“In this initial phase, our focus is to provide faculty, staff and researchers at ASU with priority access to All included tools,” he added. “Right now, we’re hyper-focused on putting ChatGPT Enterprise in the hands of our core knowledge… to be at the forefront of discovery and implementation.”
