Education at BYU-Idaho has always been about preparing students for the future, constantly innovating courses to match the skills that they will need. In his foundational address “A Steady, Upward Course,” President Henry B. Eyring stated, “The overarching theme for all of our scholarly work at Brigham Young University-Idaho should be inspired inquiry and innovation.”
Since ChatGPT’s launch in November 2022, BYU-Idaho's faculty have worked to adapt AI tools for the classroom and prepare graduates for an AI-filled professional world. To deepen this conversation, BYU-Idaho hosted the Fall 2024 Artificial Intelligence Expo from November 18 to 22.
The first four days of the five-day expo were webinar only, covering one primary topic each day. Friday had a keynote with Jared Spataro, Chief Marketing Officer for AI at Work at Microsoft, as well as in-person presentations from students and faculty.
The AI Expo was held for the first time in Spring 2024, but Fall 2024 far expanded the expo’s reach online, and future webinars are in discussion. Session recordings from the expo are available on the BYU-Idaho Generative AI website.
“We thought if we could do more of a webinar-based expo, we could bring in a wider range of audiences, as well as a more specific and talented group of presenters,” said David Ashby, Director of Learning Innovation and Technology and the event organizer. “It was a really fun experience that brought together not just BYU-Idaho employees, faculty, and students, but also alumni, local educators from around Idaho, and friends of the university who are very interested in the topic.”
AI Unlocked: Foundations of the Future
Monday built off of the AI basics with classes about getting started with AI, tips and tricks, productivity strategies, and copyright.
“This was to give everyone a base knowledge of what you can do with it, what you should be aware of, and what tools are available to BYU-Idaho students, faculty, and employees,” Ashby said.
Tuesday focused on AI in the workplace with two panels of professionals speaking about how AI is impacting their fields, including software development, entrepreneurship, content creation, social media, and web security.
“Most of the research we’re reading around AI says that faculty and students need to be very closely connected with how AI is evolving in the workplace, because every industry has different standards and norms,” Ashby said. “So, we really got as broad of a perspective as we could.”
Leveled Up Learning: AI’s Impact on Learning and Teaching
Wednesday’s classes covered AI’s impact on learning and teaching and how to ethically and effectively integrate artificial intelligence into the university curriculum.
“We had faculty sharing their lesson plans, how their lessons are impacted, or what new lessons they’re using that are requiring students to engage with AI tools,” Ashby said.
The Human and the Machine: Keeping the Human in the Loop
Thursday wrapped up with harder, stickier topics like the legal problems facing AI as well as AI’s impact on art and culture.
“Brother Memmott, dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts, gave a wonderful talk about what it means to be created in the image of God, what it means to be an image, and how our definition of images and how images are created is changing,” Ashby said. “He had a fabulous gospel perspective on AI, art, and culture, and it was so informative.”
Keynote and In-Person Presentations
And Friday summed everything up with Jared Spataro’s keynote address, where he discussed how AI agents are revolutionizing industries, stressed the ethical, responsible use of AI, and encouraged viewers to use their agency in their search for truth.
“I believe that one of the key tasks that we have in mortality is to develop our own personal sense of what we believe is a reliable, trusted source of the type of truth we’re looking for,” Spataro said at the end of his address. “There’s no doubt that this technology will cause a tremendous amount of reflection, societally and individually, on the question, ‘What is truth?’ ... [But] isn’t that what mortality is about anyway? Isn’t that the key question of this mortal existence?”
The keynote was followed by in-person presentations, where faculty members and students presented their ideas and use cases for AI, from an AI-integration in Canvas to using AI for games of Dungeons and Dragons.