Join Prof. Spyridon Simotas (Department of French) for this workshop! All are welcome. No coding, no technical setup, no prior experience with AI tools required.
Custom AI Bots 101: From General Purpose to Purposeful Design
General-purpose AI tools are optimized for engagement and user satisfaction. Our academic work (teaching, learning, research) is context-specific and requires productive friction and integrity. How then can we integrate AI in our workflows without compromising our values or academic labor? This workshop makes the case for custom chatbots whose behavior is shaped by explicit pedagogical and intellectual choices rather than default settings.
Part one of the workshop (~45 minutes): Through critical discussion, participants will take stock of where their current AI use (if any) falls on the spectrum between automation and augmentation, explore a taxonomy of custom educational bots for research and teaching, and see a couple of working examples built for real courses at UVA.
Part two of the workshop (~45 minutes): Participants will draft a system prompt for a custom bot that addresses a concrete problem in their own work.
Spyridon Simotas is an Assistant Professor, General Faculty in the French Department at UVA. He also serves as an AI Guide within a faculty learning community dedicated to exploring, experimenting with, and helping colleagues navigate the evolving landscape of AI in higher education.