Higher Education
Higher Education

Tech students get with the program; adviser’s intelligence is really artificial

Human teaching assistants, part of a group studying the effectiveness of a basic artificial intelligence teaching assistant, participate in a roundtable discussion of the project at Georgia Tech. (HENRY TAYLOR / HENRY.TAYLOR@AJC.COM)
Human teaching assistants, part of a group studying the effectiveness of a basic artificial intelligence teaching assistant, participate in a roundtable discussion of the project at Georgia Tech. (HENRY TAYLOR / HENRY.TAYLOR@AJC.COM)
By
Feb 1, 2017

There’s something different about Jill Watson, a teaching assistant for Georgia Tech professor Ashok Goel’s Masters in Computer Science class.

She answers questions for students, and seems to them, based on those online answers, like any other teaching assistant they don’t see in person.

Seeing Jill in “person” isn’t actually possible, though, because of what makes her different.

"Jill Watson" is really a computer program of artificial intelligence. To find out more about how "she's" doing and how students react to "her," read our premum story on myajc.com.

About the Author

Eric Stirgus joined The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2001. He is the newsroom's education editor. Born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., Eric is active in the Atlanta Association of Black Journalists and the Education Writers Association and enjoys mentoring aspiring journalists.

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