Problems

Generative artificial intelligence leapt into the mainstream when OpenAI unveiled ChatGPT in November 2022. Today, a staggering 86% of all university students use AI **(Source)** and we expect this number to rapidly grow. This poses new challenges for both students and faculty alike; Through hundreds of conversations with professors, students, and administrators, we've identified critical friction points in the integration of AI within higher education:

1. Available AI tools (like ChatGPT) are trained on random unverifiable internet data with no sources or citations of the information it produces. It is simply not built for education.
2. Professors struggle to control AI, integrate AI, and make AI usage transparent in their classroom. This creates a massive disconnect between professors and students, and we found this disconnect growing rapidly.
3. Currently, students have no professor-approved, course-specific AI tool to utilize and learn with.
4. Universities face significant pressure to protect sensitive data and intellectual property with the rise of AI.
5. The integrity of learning objectives for assignments are becoming harder to evaluate student understanding.

We are at a pivotal moment—the era of AI in education has not merely arrived; it is actively transforming the landscape of learning, challenging us to reimagine the future of intellectual exploration. It is not only vital, but necessary, that universities do not eliminate AI but instead, learn to embrace it to amplify and enrich the learning experience.

Solution

To address the problems above, we built Sai with the help of professors, students, and administrators. Sai is the platform built for professor to adapt and integrate AI on every level. Sai provides professors with full transparency, complete control, and seamless (LMS) integration over artificial intelligence usage for their classrooms. Students receive access to university approved, course specific AI tools that use proven learning strategies and personalized study methods. Sai is built to bridge the connection and remove the disconnect between students and professor]

https://youtu.be/h-MvG7P4048?feature=shared

Does Sai Work?

In Spring 2024, Sai was used in PSYCH 1101: Introduction To Psychology taught by Professor Anderson to evaluate Sai’s impact on teaching and learning effectiveness for both professors and students. It's important to acknowledge that while this research is still underway, preliminary results indicate that Sai has already produced several positive outcomes.

Student:

• Improved Test Scores & Content Understanding:
  • Students in this class using Sai showed an increase in test scores and content understanding compared to control groups.
• Increase Support, Satisfaction, and Happiness
  • Surveys indicated an increase in student satisfaction related to course support. There was an increase in reports of happiness related to course experiences, due to more interactive and responsive 24/7 support from Sai.
• Increased Engagement
  • Engagement metrics surrounding class materials and course content rose which showed Sai’s efficacy in making the content more interactive and engaging.

Based on the available metrics, we hypothesize that the implementation of Sai in a course contributes to a reduction in course drop rates and an improvement in overall graduation rates among students, although these outcomes have not yet been strictly quantified.