Hi ,
People often criticise university lecturers for being knowledge-rich, but poor in real-world experience.
Yet, such criticism misses the point of academia.
Pure academics exist to create knowledge. And any time spent away from this reduces their capacity to create.
Nevertheless, without an understanding of real-world problems, academics risk producing work of limited practical value.
This is why universities partner with industry or include experienced practitioners among their teaching
staff.
Industry practitioners possess a wealth of experience. And by combining that experience with academic knowledge, better solutions can be achieved.
Here's the thing...
Earlier this month, Google announced Bard, a conversational AI service set to rival ChatGPT.
Yet, in the excitement around the launch, it's easy to forget that, although Bard and ChatGPT possess more academic knowledge than any human could ever hope to learn, they have no actual experiences of their own.
AI-powered chatbots may
produce impressive results on their own, but they lack the experiences to understand the value of those results and where to apply them.
The real value of these chatbots comes when their knowledge and human experience are combined.
Talk again soon,
Dr Genevieve Hayes.
p.s. I recently discussed how Georgia Tech incorporates the real world experiences of their
students into the teaching of their OMSCS program, with OMSCS Executive Director David Joyner. You can find the first part of the interview HERE, with the second part to be released next Thursday.
