{"533921":{"#nid":"533921","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Artificial Intelligence Course Creates AI Teaching Assistant","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ECollege of Computing Professor Ashok Goel teaches Knowledge Based Artificial Intelligence (KBAI) every semester. It\u2019s a core requirement of Georgia Tech\u2019s online master\u2019s of science in computer science program. And every time he offers it, Goel estimates, his 300 or so students post roughly 10,000 messages in the online forums \u2014 far too many inquiries for him and his eight teaching assistants (TA) to handle.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThat\u2019s why Goel added a ninth TA this semester. Her name is Jill Watson, and she\u2019s unlike any other TA in the world. In fact, she\u2019s not even a \u201cshe.\u201d Jill is a computer \u2014 a virtual TA \u2014 implemented, in part, using technologies from \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.ibm.com\/smarterplanet\/us\/en\/ibmwatson\/developercloud\/\u0022\u003EIBM\u2019s Watson platform\u003C\/a\u003E. \u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe world is full of online classes, and they\u2019re plagued with low retention rates,\u201d Goel said. \u201cOne of the main reasons many students drop out is because they don\u2019t receive enough teaching support. We created Jill as a way to provide faster answers and feedback.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGoel and his team of Georgia Tech graduate students started to build her last year. They contacted Piazza, the course\u2019s online discussion forum, to track down all the questions that had ever been asked in KBAI since the class was launched in fall 2014 (about 40,000 postings in all). Then they started to feed Jill the questions and answers.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cOne of the secrets of online classes is that the number of questions increases if you have more students, but the number of \u003Cem\u003Edifferent \u003C\/em\u003Equestions doesn\u2019t really go up,\u201d Goel said. \u201cStudents tend to ask the same questions over and over again.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022Default\u0022\u003EThat\u2019s an ideal situation to apply computing technologies like Watson. Goel tapped into IBM\u0027s open developer platform to identify Watson APIs for answering questions, adding Georgia Tech\u2019s own processing modules to improve performance. The team then wrote code that allows Jill to field routine questions that are asked every semester. For example, students consistently ask where they can find particular assignments and readings.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EJill wasn\u2019t very good for the first few weeks after she started in January, often giving odd and irrelevant answers. Her responses were posted in a forum that wasn\u2019t visible to students.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cInitially her answers weren\u0027t good enough because she would get stuck on keywords,\u201d said Lalith Polepeddi, one of the graduate students who co-developed the virtual TA. \u201cFor example, a student asked about organizing a meet-up to go over video lessons with others, and Jill gave an answer referencing a textbook that could supplement the video lessons \u2014 same keywords \u2014 but different context. So we learned from mistakes like this one, and gradually made Jill smarter.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAfter some tinkering by the research team, Jill found her groove and soon was answering questions with 97 percent certainty. When she did, the human TAs would upload her responses to the students. By the end of March, Jill didn\u2019t need any assistance: She wrote the class directly if she was 97 percent positive her answer was correct.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe students, who were studying artificial intelligence, were unknowingly interacting with it. Goel didn\u2019t inform them about Jill\u0027s true identity until April 26. The student response was uniformly\u0026nbsp;positive. One admitted her mind was blown. Another asked if Jill could \u201ccome out and play.\u201d Since then some students have organized a KBAI alumni forum to learn about new developments with Jill after the class ends, and another group of students has launched an open source project to replicate her.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBack in February, student Tyson Bailey began to wonder if Jill was a computer and posted his suspicions on Piazza.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe were taking an AI course, so I had to imagine that it was possible there might be an AI lurking around,\u201d said Bailey, who lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. \u201cThen again, I asked Dr. Goel if he was a computer in one of my first email interactions with him. I think it\u2019s a great idea and hope that they continue to improve it.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EJill ended the semester able to answer many routine questions asked. She\u2019ll return \u2014with a different name \u2014 next semester. The goal is to have the virtual teaching assistant answer 40 percent of all questions by the end of year.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Students didn\u2019t know their TA was a computer"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EProfessor Ashok Goel uses IBM\u0027s Watson platform to design Jill Watson, a virtual teaching assistant. She was one of nine TAs in Goel\u0027s artificial intelligence online course. He surprised his students at the end of the semester; no one guessed she wasn\u0027t a human.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Professor surprises students by using computer as a teaching assistant."}],"uid":"27560","created_gmt":"2016-05-09 08:56:53","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:21:35","author":"Jason Maderer","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2016-05-09T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2016-05-09T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"487761":{"id":"487761","type":"image","title":"Ashok Goel in the Classroom","body":null,"created":"1453233601","gmt_created":"2016-01-19 20:00:01","changed":"1475895242","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:54:02","alt":"","file":{"fid":"204360","name":"16c10303-p20-005.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/16c10303-p20-005_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/16c10303-p20-005_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":626685,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/16c10303-p20-005_0.jpg?itok=tKMoejMN"}},"533931":{"id":"533931","type":"image","title":"Artifical Intelligence","body":null,"created":"1462892400","gmt_created":"2016-05-10 15:00:00","changed":"1475895317","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:55:17"},"254861":{"id":"254861","type":"image","title":"Ashok Goel_new","body":null,"created":"1449243846","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 15:44:06","changed":"1475894934","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:48:54","alt":"Ashok Goel_new","file":{"fid":"198194","name":"131021ar069.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/131021ar069_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/131021ar069_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":22589,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/131021ar069_0.jpg?itok=LHnjxeF2"}}},"media_ids":["487761","533931","254861"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/omscs.gatech.edu\/","title":"Learn About OMS CS"}],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"2556","name":"artificial intelligence"},{"id":"169183","name":"Jill Watson"},{"id":"66341","name":"OMS CS"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"},{"id":"39521","name":"Robotics"},{"id":"39541","name":"Systems"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71881","name":"Science and Technology"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJason Maderer\u003Cbr \/\u003ENational Media Relations\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:maderer@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Emaderer@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-660-2926\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["maderer@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}