Generative AI at UM-Dearborn

Generative AI (GenAI) is a general term for artificial intelligence that creates new content by generating new data samples that are similar to the training set. GenAI can be used to quickly produce or analyze various types of content, including text, imagery, audio and synthetic data from fairly simple user interfaces.  While this technology is not brand-new (GenAI was introduced in the 1960s in chatbots), advances in computing devices and algorithms now mean that GenAI can create convincingly authentic text, images, videos and audio of real people.

One of the most well-known GenAI applications, ChatGPT developed by OpenAI, is a sophisticated chatbot that has been trained on an enormous collection of text data to develop an understanding of the patterns and structures of human language. The model behind ChatGPT, which relies on that vast collection of text, is called a large language model (LLM). LLMs have been trained on digitized books, articles, websites, and other types of text to learn patterns in natural and written language. In response to prompts from users, ChatGPT can generate text that is coherent and convincingly human-like in seconds. It can summarize historical events, write an essay or basic computer code, translate a passage, or even compose poetry and songs. Examples of uses that have already emerged include using it as a research assistant, a proofreader, a brainstorming aid, a calculator, and many more. However, outputs fall short of demonstrating the higher levels of learning needed to succeed in a rigorous academic setting. Additionally, it’s also sometimes wrong, and with great confidence.

While ChatGPT has been the most discussed machine learning tool of late, alternatives are available or in development (e.g. Google Bard, etc.). Tools like Stable Diffusion or DALL-E 2 have been used to generate surprisingly beautiful, detailed, original, and realistic images based on text prompts. New tools are emerging on a daily basis and so it can be hard to keep up.

UM-Dearborn’s Generative AI Task Force has developed some guidance on specific topics related to GenAI for faculty, staff, and students:

In addition to these UM-Dearborn specific resources, the U-M Generative AI site has information and resources for all faculty, staff, and students from all three U-M campuses.