Year of AI Helps Bring New Learning Tools To Campus

By Tate Chapman

Reporting Texas

A photo of an AI Live Panel in Austin, Texas, at UT on Nov. 14, 2024. (Tate Chapman/Reporting Texas TV)

The Year of AI at The University of Texas at Austin has prompted new innovations in Artificial Intelligence.

UT Sage, an AI tutor, was designed by Kasey Ford. Her role is fully funded by the University making it possible for learning tools like this to be created.

Dr. Julie Schell, Assistant Vice Provost of Academic Technology and Director of the Office of Academic Technology expressed that the tool is unlike other chat bots such as ChatGPT.

“When you put something into Sage you can be assured that your intellectual property rights and your copyright rights are protected because it’s a university model that’s approved for use on campus,” said Schell.

In addition, students’ privacy, security, and data are also protected in using the learning tool.

With UT Sage set to be released sometime next semester, a student user test just recently took place providing feedback for improvement.

“We’re taking student feedback really seriously,” said Schell. “We got some feedback from students about how the idea and concept is great but there were some things we need to improve about Sage.”

Professor Moxie another AI tool out of UT was created by Professor Erin Reilly. At an AI live event, Sage and Moxie were both introduced by a panel of UT Faculty. Moxie is the digital twin of the professor and can chat with users about herself and her expertise.

Not only does Moxie look like Professor Reilly but she also sounds like her too.

Professor Moxie lives online and can be found through the Texas Immersive Institute. Sophia Baker, a Creative  Technologist with TXI helped bring Moxie to life.

“If you interact with her maybe in like two weeks or even just a week, I will probably have made improvements to her, but she is available online,” Baker said.

Diego Torrealba, a UT student interested in AI said he will check out UT Sage when it is released.

“I would, because there’s like a whole controversy right now about AI companies and all that. What information are they allowed to access? Are they allowed to access everything on the internet? I guess I’d be more incentivized to use it if I knew how it was developed,” said Torrealba.

Innovations in AI at UT help bring to fruition the slogan “What Starts Here Changes The World.”