{"id":8613,"date":"2026-02-06T21:13:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T21:13:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/professor-defends-ai-textbook\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T21:13:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T21:13:26","slug":"professor-defends-ai-textbook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/professor-defends-ai-textbook\/","title":{"rendered":"Professor Says Her Garbled AI Textbook Was a Huge Success"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The professor behind an AI-generated textbook says that her error-ridden experiment was actually a resounding success.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>. Its AI-generated cover was riddled with incomprehensible text \u2014 \u201cOf Nerniacular Latin To An Evoolitun On Nance Langusages,\u201d for example \u2014 and featured generic visuals that had little to do with the period it was supposedly covering.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the time, Elizabeth Landers, a grad student who helped put together the volume, said that the errors \u201caren\u2019t a failure of AI.\u201d Instead, she argued, \u201cthey\u2019re an intentional artistic choice that prompts students to question their assumptions about language, meaning and historical truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now in a new interview<\/a> with Inside Higher Ed<\/em> in which the word \u201challucination\u201d isn\u2019t mentioned once, the course\u2019s professor Zrinka Stahulja called her decision to use an \u201cAI-assisted\u201d textbook a \u201cno-brainer\u201d because of all the time it saved her, helping her be an \u201capproachable and accessible teacher.\u201d<\/p>\n

And incredibly, Stahuljak says she was surprised that her UCLA colleagues were so skeptical about her AI textbook. \u201cI was really shocked that they couldn\u2019t see that this textbook was my creation; it was carefully edited, just as if it had been printed,\u201d she told IHE<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see how a traditional textbook that costs $250 and is out of date within two years or three years, would be in some way better than a custom $25 AI-facilitated textbook that is based on my material,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

The AI textbook was made with Kudu, a platform for creating digital textbooks started by another UCLA professor. Stahuljak says she created the textbook by supplying her own notes to the AI tool, which was instructed not to pull from outside sources. Students could interact with a built-in chatbot to help learn the materials, though she stresses it was designed not to write papers or complete assignments. Stahuljak also says the AI features made the book more accessible, with some students saying they listened to it while walking or at the gym.<\/p>\n

After deploying the AI textbook, Stahuljak claimed that \u201cengagement went up\u201d compared to classes that didn\u2019t use it. And perhaps soberingly, she viewed it as a preferable to <\/strong>having her students turn to ChatGPT for help.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s better than some commercial version that has nothing to do with what you\u2019re teaching or is pulling the information from the internet,\u201d she said in the interview. \u201cWe\u2019re losing that control when we are indiscriminately given ChatGPT or other commercial generative AI-powered tools.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a fair point or two being made, but Stahuljak isn\u2019t addressing the numerous elephants in the room. AI chatbots are notorious for generating made-up facts and otherwise incorrectly reporting information, regardless of whatever data they\u2019re being asked to pull from. A considerable and still growing body of evidence shows how AI tools may diminish critical thinking skills<\/a> and attention spans. Then there\u2019s the broader concerns over how the tech is threatening the very existence of learning institutions<\/a>, as tech companies spend millions of dollars to capture schools and universities<\/a> and use them to offload their products.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is truly bad and makes me wonder if we aren\u2019t participating in creating our own replacements at the expense of, well, everyone who cares about teaching and learning,\u201d one English professor wrote on social media after the AI textbook was announced, as quoted by IHE<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Others were even harsher. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you do this you should have your doctorate revoked and be thrown into the stocks at the center of the main university quad,\u201d fumed<\/a> another professor. \u201cThis is abandonment of professional responsibility to a degree that would be comical if it weren\u2019t so self-serious.\u201d<\/p>\n

More on AI:<\/strong> Gen Z Arriving at College Unable to Read<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The post Professor Says Her Garbled AI Textbook Was a Huge Success<\/a> appeared first on Futurism<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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