(NewsNation) — Arizona State University students are debating Aristotle chatbots and counseling AI-generated patients as higher education explores artificial intelligence.

The university partnered with OpenAI earlier this year to explore how to leverage ChatGPT as an educational and research tool. Staff and faculty began submitting project proposals in February for the AI Innovation Challenge, which amassed more than 540 entries as of Wednesday. The university has so far put 250 projects into action across a breadth of ASU’s schools and colleges.

The university will soon choose a second round of projects to receive ChatGPT Edu licensing through the program. The effort marks higher education’s first steps toward a “highly diversified, technologically enhanced” near future, ASU President Michael Crow said.

“No two people learn in exactly the same way, and innovation has proven to be the most powerful asset that we have,” Crow said. “Essential to ASU’s success is that we use technology, and now AI, to deliver lifelong learning.”

All of ASU’s approved projects outline ways ChatGPT can support teaching and learning, advance research for the public good or contribute to a more positive, productive and supportive workplace.

How is Arizona State University using AI?

ASU has greenlit projects including an AI test patient named “Sam” that helps behavioral health students practice their counseling skills.

“Simulation is an important component of the course for students to practice their motivational interviewing skills.” Clinical professor Colleen Cordes said in an official statement. “When generative AI came on the scene, we were immediately interested in what new pathways this technology could offer our students.”

German 101 students used Language Buddy, an AI-powered custom tool with a “voice mode” to engage in back-and-forth conversations, while philosophy students role-played famous thinkers and debated an AI-generated persona.

Overall, university leaders say they’re paving the way for students of all types to learn in a personalized and effective way.

“Experience with AI is going to be necessary — if it isn’t already — in the workforce,” ASU instructor David McElhoes said. “If you don’t have those skills, you’re going to be at a disadvantage.”

AI in education

In its infancy, AI technology like ChatGPT gave some educators pause and raised concerns about plagiarism. The language model previously passed four graduate-level exams at the University of Minnesota Law School and a test at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

To discourage students from relying on AI, some districts in cities like Los Angeles, Seattle and New York moved to block students from using ChatGPT. Others embraced the technology as a tool for innovation.

Within the disability community, the chatbot’s free and open-source nature generated hope and excitement about its potential to help people independently overcome barriers.

Teachers explored whether AI may be useful for lesson plans and writing exercises. Others lauded language models like ChatGPT as a way to stimulate students’ creativity and problem-solving skills.

At ASU, university leaders say the school’s AI Innovation Challenge “democratizes” access to those tools by allowing staff to decide how they want to see AI put to use in the classroom.

“We have long dreamt about individualized, personalized learning without constraints,” Crow said. “No more preconceived notion of who’s smart and who’s not smart. AI systems allow that individual to pursue learning in a way in which they can have learning outcomes that they desire.”

ASU isn’t the only school leaning into AI. Students in a Georgia Institute of Technology AI master’s class were surprised to learn one of their teaching assistants, Jill Watson, was computer-generated, EdTech Magazine reported.

Nearby Georgia State University used an AI text messaging service to retain the enrollment of more than 300 students, who may have otherwise dropped out before the first day of fall semester classes.

And in Indiana, Ivy Tech Community College used AI to identify 16,000 students at risk of failing in the first two weeks of the semester, according to the Digital Marketing Institute. College officials assigned outreach workers to offer support to each student. The effort prevented 3,000 students from failing and 98% of those who were at risk achieved a grade of C or higher.