Elements of AI - University of Helsinki
Free course for learning about AI in general.
ChatGPT is everywhere. Here’s where it came from - Will Douglas Heaven, MIT Technology Review
Useful history.
The Acceleration of Artificial Intelligence - Anna-Sofia Lesiv
An interesting summary of the development of today’s generative AI. It’s useful for understanding the 2017 breakthrough (transformer architecture) that led to so much that’s happening now.
A jargon-free explanation of how AI large language models work - Timothy B. Lee and Sean Trott
Learn about word vectors, transformers, and more.
Generative AI exists because of the transformer - Visual Storytelling Team and Madhumita Murgia, Financial Times
Useful explanation with helpful visuals.
Why does chatGPT make up fake academic papers? - Twitter thread by David Smerdon, Univ. of Queensland
Very good explanation.
Large language models from scratch and Large Language Models: Part 2 (videos) - Graphics in 5 Minutes on YouTube
What is Reinforcement Learning From Human Feedback (RLHF) - Alex McFarland
Useful explanation.
Policies and FAQs from OpenAI:
Prompt engineering for ChatGPT - Coursera course by Dr. Jules White, Vanderbilt University
How to use AI to do practical stuff: A new guide - Prof. Ethan Mollick
Useful list of tips and examples.
Three ways to leverage ChatGPT and other generative AI in research - Times Higher Education
Ideas for using ChatGPT for (1) to determine a hypothesis or question; (2) research method: follow an accepted research method or invent a new method or algorithm to conduct an investigation that resolves or answers the question; and (3) research output: formulate, evaluate, and document the solution to enable further research.
Teaching: Will ChatGPT Change the Way You Teach? (Chronicle Teaching)
How to thoughtfully incorporate ChatGPT into course discussions and assignments to encourage critical thinking from students in their engagement with these tools.
The 2025 Student Guide to Artificial Intelligence - Elon University and AAC&U
"This guide empowers students to engage with AI – academically, professionally and ethically."
A Survival Guide to AI and Teaching pt.7: Inoculating Our Students (and Ourselves!) Against Mis- and Disinformation in the Age of AI (Temple University)
"Our task as educators is to prepare our students to navigate an information environment characterized by the use of generative AI by inoculating against disinformation, helping them develop the skill and habit of verifying information, and building a conception of the components of a healthy information environment."
Accessibility Powered by AI: How Artificial Intelligence Can Help Universalize Access to Digital Content
Using generative AI to improve accessibility.
Educator considerations for ChatGPT (Open AI) From the creators of ChatGPT.
Based on feedback from educators from a number of institutions. Covers ethics and literacy, truthfulness, bias, assessment, equity, and more.
How ChatGPT Could Help or Hurt Students With Disabilities (Chronicle)
How to work in collaboration with students to use these tools to support their learning rather than it being used in a panic to plagiarize.
How we can teach children so they survive AI – and cope with whatever comes next (George Monbiot) "Schoolchildren should be taught to understand how thinking works, from neuroscience to cultural conditioning; how to observe and interrogate their thought processes; and how and why they might become vulnerable to disinformation and exploitation."
Studies suggest that AI-based chatbots have a positive impact on college students, improving their mental health and overall learning experience. See:
1. Ethan Mollick, Wharton School at Univ. of Pennsylvania.
Start with these articles from his newsletter:
Sign up for his newsletter: One Useful Thing. And read his paper: Mollick, Ethan R. and Mollick, Lilach, Using AI to Implement Effective Teaching Strategies in Classrooms: Five Strategies, Including Prompts (March 17, 2023).
2. Dr. Philippa Hardman, Learning designer from the UK
Start with these articles from her newsletter:
Post-AI Assessment
A ChatGPT Prompt for Learner Equity
See also her talk: The AI Education Revolution is Coming, or is it?- TEDx Santa Barbara
3. Brent Anders, American University of Armenia
From his blog: Writing assignments in the age of AI
How ChatGPT Can Help Prevent Violations of Academic Integrity
See also his book for ideas for teaching AI literacy concepts, The AI Literacy Imperative: Empowering Instructors & Students.
Copyright issues
The AI-Copyright Trap - Carys J. Craig, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto
Long read, but worth it. “... they risk running headlong into the Copyright Trap: the mistaken conviction that copyright law is the best tool to support human creators and culture in our new technological reality (when in fact it is likely to do more harm than good).”
Generative AI Meets Copyright - Pamela Samuelson, Professor of Law, UC Berkeley (YouTube)
Recording of a talk she gave, summarizing the outstanding cases. "It will take years for this to be resolved in the courts."
Prof. Matthew Sag Testimony on Copyright and AI (PDF), Testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, July 12, 2023.
Letter to the U.S. Copyright Office from the Library Copyright Alliance (The American Library Association and The Association of Research Libraries). Oct, 31, 2023. (download the PDF) Supports the idea that training data for generative AI should be considered fair use.
Bias
AI expert Meredith Broussard: ‘Racism, sexism and ableism are systemic problems’ - The Guardian
Racism, sexism and ableism are systemic problems that are baked into our technological systems because they’re baked into society. It would be great if the fix were more data. But more data won’t fix our technological systems if the underlying problem is society.
Language models might be able to self-correct biases—if you ask them - MIT Technology Review
A study from AI lab Anthropic shows how simple natural-language instructions can steer large language models to produce less toxic content.
Mitigating AI bias with prompt engineering — putting GPT to the test - VentureBeat
Designing ethically-Informed prompts.
A Radical Plan to Make AI Good, Not Evil
OpenAI competitor Anthropic, on using AI to train AI (instead of humans). They call it “constitutional AI.”
The Movement to Decolonize AI: Centering Dignity Over Dependency - Stanford University Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence
Stanford scholar Sabelo Mhlambi describes how AI has a colonizing impact on the world and the ways activists are aiming to change that.
Identifying AI-created content
Content Credentials verification tool
Upload an image, find out whether is has metadata from AI image generation tools from OpenAI, Microsoft, and Adobe. Not foolproof because other image generators don't include this metadata.
Is badging a solution? (badging AI vs badging human created content)
Generative AI is forcing people to rethink what it means to be authentic - The Conversation
Postplagiarism
Eaton, S.E. Postplagiarism: transdisciplinary ethics and integrity in the age of artificial intelligence and neurotechnology. Int J Educ Integr 19, 23 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40979-023-00144-1
Climate impacts
ChatGPT may not be as power-hungry as once assumed - Kyle Wiggers, TechCrunch, Feb. 11, 2025
How much energy does ChatGPT use? - Josh You, Epoch AI, Feb. 7, 2025
What’s the impact of artificial intelligence on energy demand? - Hannah Ritchie, Sustainability by Numbers
Weighing Up AI’s Climate Costs - Azeem Azhar & Carl Benedikt Frey, Project Syndicate
AI has a climate problem — but so does all of tech - Nilay Patel, The Verge
Taking a closer look at AI’s supposed energy apocalypse: AI is just one small part of data centers’ soaring energy use. - Kyle Orland, Ars Technica
The Carbon Emissions of Writing and Illustrating Are Lower for AI than for Humans - Tomlinson et al. Available at SSRN
AI’s Growing Carbon Footprint - Columbia Climate School
Especially the last section, How can AI be made greener?
Carbon Aware Computing for GenAI Developers - course on DeepLearning.ai
This is a free online course for developers. It’s here so you have the awareness that it’s possible to redirect AI training tasks to server locations around the world that use more renewable energy. If you’re interested, sign up and watch just the first video (you don’t need to be a developer). Here’s the map they discuss where you can look up your region of the world and see how much electricity use comes from renewables: Electricity Maps.
Some beneficial uses of AI for climate issues: