Snapshot: The Potential of AI in Higher Education

Last Wednesday afternoon, in a room packed with HGSE students, Siya Raj Purohit, Ed.M.’16, shared her journey from being a computer science student who wanted to make engineering education more accessible to her current role as an education leader at OpenAI, a California-based artificial intelligence company that created ChatGPT. With host Karen Brennan, a professor and faculty co-chair of the Learning Design, Innovation, and Technology Program, Raj Purohit also highlighted her roles in edtechs like Springboard and Courser and spoke about various disruptors in the education marketplace, from MOOCs to generative AI. She shared her thoughts on the potential of AI in higher education to go beyond cheating and plagiarism to create systemic change, especially when people are taught how to use AI at the individual, team, and organization levels. When asked how best to approach working with AI, she said, “Think about what will accelerate your output but will not take away your voice.”

Reporting by Sanjana D M