UCLA to introduce comparative literature course developed by AI
What's the story
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) will introduce a comparative literature course in Winter 2025, using study materials created by artificial intelligence (AI).
The course will include literature from the Middle Ages to the 17th century.
This pioneering effort comes as a major milestone for UCLA as it's the first time an AI, Kudu in this case, has been employed to develop course materials for its humanities division.
AI platform
Kudu: The AI behind UCLA's innovative course
Kudu, the AI behind this effort, is a sophisticated textbook platform created by UCLA physics and astronomy Professor Alexander Kusenko.
To create the course materials, Professor Zrinka Stahuljak provided Kudu with notes, YouTube videos, and PowerPoint presentations, from her earlier versions of the class.
The whole course creation process can take as long as four months but only about 20 hours of input from professors.
Benefits
AI-developed course to enhance student-teacher interaction
Stahuljak believes this AI-assisted approach will help her and her teaching assistants (TAs) spend more time interacting with students.
Interestingly, students can even pose questions directly to Kudu about the study material.
However, the AI's responses are strictly based on the information provided by the professor, and not sourced from the internet at large.