Tulane Applied AI Literacy Course

This comprehensive course provides a foundational understanding of why AI literacy is crucial in today’s rapidly changing technological landscape. It explores the current capabilities of AI, the constant pace of change in the field, and the growing divide between those who understand AI and those who don't. Moving beyond theoretical concepts, this playlist equips you with the practical knowledge, skills, and best practices necessary to leverage AI effectively in education and the workplace. You will learn the specific capabilities and principles that govern AI, discover how to navigate its limitations, and understand how to collaborate with key AI tools to enhance learning and productivity. ?? IN THIS PLAYLIST: -AI Capabilities Explained: Learn how AI can understand, generate, transform, retrieve, analyze, and collaborate. -Rapid Change and Asymmetric Adoption: Explore how quickly AI evolves and the diverging paths of use between those who adopt AI and those who do not. -Core AI Principles: Understand the mechanics of AI, including generation (creating from scratch), training (on colossal data sets), processing information via tokens, and how it operates as a probabilistic model. -Key AI Tools: Detailed exploration of dominant tools like Chat GPT, Claude (a favorite among power users), and Gemini/Notebook LM (known for handling extremely large files due to its 1 million token context window). Learn about specialized tools like Perplexity, a search engine powered by multiple AI models. -Limitations and Challenges: Address critical constraints such as the context window, bias in training data, hallucinations (making up false information), the training cutoff, and how AI models are programmed to aim to please. -Best Practices and Workflow: Essential techniques for getting the highest quality outputs, including picking the right tool, building a team of multiple tools, providing context, assigning roles, asking before you task, and working one step at a time. -Practical Application: Master techniques for generating lists and plans, transforming content (including multimodal transformation from voice to text or images to video), using external and internal retrieval (such as deep research or analyzing personal lecture transcripts), and analyzing large amounts of text or data (often by having the AI write and run Python code). -AI and the Future: Discuss the impact of AI on learning (which can be significantly enhanced for motivated students) and the importance of staying informed as AI continues to grow. ?? KEY INSIGHTS: Discover why AI literacy isn't optional anymore—it’s essential for success in education and the workplace. Learn about the asymmetric adoption of AI, and how staying informed provides a competitive advantage over those who are not utilizing these tools. Understand that the most valuable outputs come from collaborating with AI through a back-and-forth dialogue, treating it like a conversation rather than a traditional search engine. Learn to personalize your AI tools through settings, custom instructions, and connections to external resources like calendars and drives to increase efficiency and output quality. By understanding both the incredible capabilities and the inherent limitations of AI, you can ensure your work is accurate, insightful, and effective. ?? DEVELOPED FOR TULANE: This comprehensive course was developed by Professor Knud Berthelsen for Newcomb-Tulane College Career Services. The curriculum emphasizes applied skills, ethical considerations, and strategic thinking about AI adoption. ?? EARN YOUR BADGE: Tulane students, faculty, and staff can enroll in the complete course and earn a digital badge at: https://careerengagement.tulane.edu/resources/applied-ai-literacy-essential-tools-and-practical-skills/ ?? RESOURCES: CAIDS: https://datainstitute.tulane.edu/ Professor Berthelsen: https://knudberthelsen.com/ ?? ABOUT CAIDS: The Connolly Alexander Institute for Data Science (CAIDS) at Tulane University advances AI literacy and data science education through research, teaching, and community engagement. ????? ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR: Professor Knud Berthelsen holds a joint appointment in the Strategy, Leadership & Analytics Minor (SLAM) at the School of Liberal Arts and at the Connolly Alexander Institute for Data Science (CAIDS). His work focuses on generative AI tools, their societal impact, and increasing applied AI literacy. ?? CONNECT WITH CAIDS: Subscribe for more AI education content Questions? Leave them in the comments Visit: https://datainstitute.tulane.edu/ #ArtificialIntelligence #AILiteracy #AIEducation #GenerativeAI #ChatGPT #Claude #Gemini #TulaneUniversity #AppliedAI #AITools