The Universitat Internacional de Catalunya (UIC Barcelona) hosted a session on ChatBots and artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education on Thursday, 2 March, organised by the Vice-rectorate for Planning and Quality. The event was led by experts Tetiana Klymchuk and Xavier Marimon, lecturers at UIC Barcelona, and Marc Alier, assistant director of Teaching Innovation ICE-UPC. The event concluded with a round table discussion that brought together teachers and students interested in integrating these technologies in the education sector.
 
Tetiana Klymchuk, Data Scientist specialised in Natural Language Processing (NLP) and lecturer at the UIC Barcelona Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences, presented the technological bases and evolution of Open AI ChatGPT, and other AI tools from other companies. “Open AI has reached a level that can only grow and expand, and we have to learn to develop it. Artificial intelligence has not come to replace us, it comes to help us and make us better” Klymchuk concluded. 

Xavier Marimon, coordinating lecturer of Robotic Electronics and Artificial Intelligence in Bioengineering degree programme at UIC Barcleona, focused on highlighting the differences between machine learning and deep learning, and the role that Chatbots and generative AI play in education. Marimon explained that these technological advances can represent a paradigm shift in teaching for both teachers and students alike. “ChatGPT can also help teachers by summarising classes, building question banks or directly planning courses,” Marimon pointed out.

Tetiana Klymchuk: “Artificial intelligence has not come to replace us, it comes to help us and make us better”

Marc Alier, Computer Engineer, PhD in Sustainability, assistant professor and assistant director of Teaching Innovation ICE-UPC, spoke about the challenges and opportunities that generative chatbot models represent for education. “The best exams and educational models will be those that facilitate student access to ChatGPT and do not prohibit it,” Alier commented.

Throughout the event, the speakers highlighted the capabilities and possibilities of ChatGPT, and all agreed on the need to continue working on these new teaching and evaluation methodologies that incorporate the new artificial intelligence tools. In that sense, the vice-rector of Planning and Quality, Dr Josep Clotet, said that this day marked only a turning point, and stressed that "from the Vice-Rectorate we are always working to support teachers in this very transformative issue.”

The session ended with a round table moderated by Laura Rubio, Chief of Staff and Director of External Relations, which was included Pere Buhigas, lecturer and acting dean of the UIC Barcelona Faculty of Communication Sciences; Mercè Santos, associate professor of Industrial Control and Automation at UPC; and UIC Barcelona students Marcos Oriol, Bioengineering student, and Natalia di Ronza, Humanities and ADE student.