Balancing AI and Human Interaction
Explore UBC’s generative AI principles and guidelines for teaching and learning
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a transformative force in higher education, offering new opportunities to enhance teaching, advance research, and improve student experience. However, it also raises important considerations around academic integrity, data privacy, and digital literacy.
At its core, AI refers to algorithms and models that can generate new data such as images, music, or even complex designs. This ability to produce unique content has promising applications across industries, including higher education. AI offers us an opportunity to revolutionize both our operational processes and academic endeavors. We can not only achieve greater efficiencies but also provide richer, more tailored educational experiences for our students and faculty. The integration of this technology means a future where universities can achieve more, while continually elevating their academic offerings.
While AI offers much promise, responsible use of any technology must remain at the forefront. This site offers guidance and resources on how to ensure the use of these tools meets UBC’s guidelines and policies for secure, ethical and appropriate use.
What is Generative AI?
Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence (AI) that is able to create new content, such as text, images, music, or entire datasets, based on patterns and information it has learned from existing data. While traditional AI systems are mainly used to analyze existing data and make predictions, generative AI takes this one step further by creating new data similar to the data it accesses. When an AI technology is creating something by itself, this is called “Generative AI” or “GenAI”.
Other Forms of AI
AI includes a wide range of technologies, including machine learning, deep learning, and natural language processing (NLP). These differ from generative AI as they are focused on understanding and analyzing what already exists, rather than creating something new. AI solutions are typically offered in different forms – embedded, platform, bespoke, and individual, each varying in configurability and ease of implementation.
UBC Principles and Guidelines
UBC Generative AI Principles are now available
Refer to our principles to provide direction for the UBC community on using generative
AI responsibly for their administrative work or in an academic application.
