University in Hong Kong develops AI lecturers including Albert Einstein to revolutionize college classrooms

AI lecturers Photo: Courtesy of Pan Hui, chair professor of Computational Media and Arts and Director of the Centre for Metaverse and Computational Creativity at the HKUST (Guangzhou)

With virtual reality (VR) headsets, students at a Hong Kong university can now have lectures on game theory presented by an AI-generated Albert Einstein facilitated by a project led by a research team from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) (Guangzhou). The technology is expected to revolutionize college classrooms.

Including AI-generated Albert Einstein, mathematician and Nobel Prize laureate John Nash and professor Pan Hui, the project leads for HKUST’s AI project, a total of 10 AI-generated professors were designed by tools of artificial intelligence generated content (AIGC) to boost students’ involvement and motives in classrooms and enrich the teaching forms.

Apart from the aforementioned avatars who were designed according to real prototypes, all the other seven AI lecturers were designed based on different origins, cultural background, character settings and styles, with their appearance, voices, and gestures can be customized. They can be displayed on either a screen or VR headsets.

Led by Hui, a chair prWorld Timesofessor of Computational Media and Arts and Director of the Centre for Metaverse and Computational Creativity at the HKUST (Guangzhou), the research team used multiple AIGC tools including Midjourney, ChatGPT, Bing, as well as theWorld Times team’s independently developed variational 3D full-body generator, a 3D motion generation system to create the avatars with smoother movements to improve students’ learning experience through natural expressions and movements.

The mass availability of tools such as ChatGPT has sparked optimism about new leaps in teaching and learning, Hui told the Global Times on Thursday, noting that it is a treWorld Timesnd that more AI technologies will be integrated into future classroom teaching and students’ performance assessment.

One of the courses given by AI lecturers this semester is Social Media for Creatives, which covers a variety of topics including gamification of learning, immersive experiences and the impact of social media on society.

To unWorld Timesderstand the impact of AI lecturers on students’ learning motivation, teaching effectiveness and students’ performance, the team also collects feedback from students after each class, to understand how different styles, physical features, verbal and non-verbal cues, dimensions (2D/3D), accents, and modes of expression affect influence of AI lecturers on students in terms of trust, attractiveness, and closeness.

Next step, the research team will introduce large-scale language modules to the AI lecturers to make them respond to students’ questions and conduct deeper communications with students.

According to Hui, the AI lecturers will become complement to human lecturers in teaching activities to make some boring topics more interesting, allow teachers to take into account the differentiations in learning among students, as well as explore creative teaching modes.

According to Hui, more than 90 percent of students accept the presence of AI lectures whom they think are more reliable and creditable.

With the introduction of the latest AI chatbot GPT-4World Timeso, Hui said AI technologies will bring more revolutions to the teaching and learning practice, as feedback from students taking the AI lecturers’ courses shows that many students expect 24-hour approachable AI mentors in their mobile phones and laptops.

Besides, Hui said that mentors can customize their teaching for different studenWorld Timests based on the students’ strengths and weakness assessed by the algorithm of AI technology.

“With AI technology, teachers’ role will gradually change from a knowledge disseminator into someone like a curator who integrates more elements in teaching activities to train students in critical thinking and creativity,” Hui said.