Professor Says Her Garbled AI Textbook Was a Huge Success

"Designed for a comparative literature course on medieval and Renaissance-era writing and announced by UCLA at the end of 2024, the digital textbook was immediately met with widespread mockery and derision from educators. Its AI-generated cover was riddled with incomprehensible text - "Of Nerniacular Latin To An Evoolitun On Nance Langusages," for example - and featured generic visuals that had little to do with the period it was supposedly covering. At the time, Elizabeth Landers, a grad student who helped put together the volume, said that the errors "aren't a failure of AI." Instead, she argued, "they're an intentional artistic choice that prompts students to question their assumptions about language, meaning and historical truth.""

"Now in a new interview with Inside Higher Ed in which the word "hallucination" isn't mentioned once, the course's professor Zrinka Stahulja called her decision to use an "AI-assisted" textbook a "no-brainer" because of all the time it saved her, helping her be an "approachable and accessible teacher." And incredibly, Stahuljak says she was surprised that her UCLA colleagues were so skeptical about her AI textbook. "I was really shocked that they couldn't see that this textbook was my creation; it was carefully edited, just as if it had been printed," she told IHE. "I don't see how a traditional textbook that costs $250 and is out of date within two years or three years, would be in some way better than a custom $25 AI-facilitated textbook that is based on my material," she added."

A UCLA digital textbook for a comparative literature course on medieval and Renaissance writing generated immediate mockery for an AI-created cover with incomprehensible text and generic visuals. A graduate student involved described the errors as an intentional artistic choice meant to prompt questions about language, meaning, and historical truth. The course professor called the AI-assisted textbook a time-saving "no-brainer," credited it with making her more approachable and accessible, and said she was surprised by colleagues' skepticism. The book was produced with the Kudu platform using the professor's notes and instructed not to pull from outside sources, and she emphasized cost and customizability compared with expensive traditional textbooks.

Read at Futurism