AI @ Middlebury
DLINQ Updates
We have revised our AI support pages. Let us know if you have any questions or if you’d like to see more on a particular topic.
- AI basics
- AI in your classroom
- AI and assignments (both AI inclusive and AI resistant)
- Classroom policies
- AI in your research
DLINQ Workshops
We held the following workshops in January with AI themes.
- What’s New in AI: Tools and Trends for Teaching and Research
- Mitigating Inappropriate AI Use with Process-Oriented Assignments
- AI and Research for a senior research Economics class
Please reach out to dlinq@middlebury.edu if you’re interested in a workshop for your class or colleagues.
AI in Academic Database Tools
Increasingly, academic database tools like JSTOR, ProQuest and Statista are including AI to simplify search and to provide overviews and interactions with the content. These platforms are changing rapidly and don’t necessarily provide choice in whether the tools are activated or not.
AI in the broader world
Google highlights
- Google/Apple AI partnership: Following in the footsteps of the Microsoft-OpenAI partnership, Apple has chosen Google’s Gemini as the foundation for its upcoming Apple Intelligence and Siri updates. We are monitoring this trend toward deepening, and often unavoidable, AI integration within core operating systems.
- Google continues to expand its targeted AI offerings. Jules, Opal, and Antigravity offer different approaches to AI-assisted coding and app building. On the creative side, the Lupe Fiasco-inspired TextFX serves as a “linguistic lab” for writers and rappers, meanwhile, Wayne McGregor’s AISOMA offers an interactive way to generate choreography from dance archives. A privacy reminder: Even though you’re signing in with your Google education account, many of these experimental tools have their own terms of service. Make sure you review these agreements prior to using any tool!
- TranslateGemma: Of possible interest to our language instructors, Google released a collection of open models focused on translation. Google claims “reliable, high-quality performance across major languages (such as Spanish, French, Chinese, and Hindi) as well as many low-resource languages.”
AI and ethics
- Anthropic’s New Constitution: Claude updated its ethical guidelines and behavioral framework. Worth reading if you use Claude regularly or if you’re interested in AI governance.
- Thaura AI: A new AI platform emphasizing ethical and eco-conscious development. Their slogan is ”Big Tech fuels oppression. We fuel resistance. A free AI for a free future.”
- Teach Anything: Built in cooperation with the Digital Humanities Institute at George Washington University this is a privacy-first service that allows you to use open-source LLMs to build course-specific chatbots for free.
Upcoming Event
Awakening Together: Building Community Around AI in the Liberal Arts (Zoom): Feb. 3 at 4PM Eastern offered by Connecticut College this dynamic webinar will explore collaborative approaches to AI integration across liberal arts campuses. Lance Eaton, will open with a lightning talk on awakening the liberal arts in the age of AI, then moderate a panel discussion featuring leaders from three distinguished institutions: Eric Chown (Bowdoin College), David Watts (Colby College), and Susan Purrington (Connecticut College), who will share insights from their collaborative work supporting AI efforts at their respective campuses.
