AI conquers the lecture hall: New lecture series at Bielefeld University!

AI conquers the lecture hall: New lecture series at Bielefeld University!

In the summer semester of 2025, Bielefeld University will take a central place in the discussion about the role of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education. As part of the new lecture series BI.teach.talks, various aspects of AI and their effects on teaching, learning and testing will be discussed. The series will begin on Wednesday, April 16th, with a lecture by Junior Professor Dr. Benjamin Paaßen, who is dedicated to the responsible use of AI at universities. In particular, he will talk about when automated reviews can be considered unfair. Loud aktuell.uni-bielefeld.de The series is open to students, teachers and anyone else interested.

Professor Dr. Dario Anselmetti, Vice Rector for Studies and Teaching at the university, emphasizes the importance of imparting skills in dealing with AI. At a time when systems like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Bard are increasingly coming to the fore, it is important to think critically about the use of such technologies. Generative AI is able to generate texts, images, videos and audios. The focus is particularly on so-called Large Language Models (LLMs), which can generate new content from existing training data, such as the statistically working GPT-4 from the training data.

The lecture series in detail

The BI.teach.talks series will continue monthly throughout the summer semester. After the kick-off on April 16th, the following events are on the program:

• Mittwoch, 14. Mai: Lukas Gehring – „KI-Text Detektoren im (Hochschul-)Bildungsbereich. Wie gut sind sie wirklich?“
• Mittwoch, 11. Juni: Professor Dr. Hendrik Buschmeier – „Generative KI in der Lehre: Verstehen first, Anwenden ggf. second“
• Mittwoch, 16. Juli: Dr. Marco Stojanovic und Dorian Drost – „KI in der Lehre richtig einsetzen – Mehr Lernerfolg, weniger Aufwand“

The lectures take place from 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in room XE0-001 in Building X. These events expand the annual day for teaching at Bielefeld University (BI.teach) and thus offer a valuable platform to spread knowledge about AI and its use in teaching.

Generative AI in education

Generative AI systems, such as those currently used in training, can generate texts that are often linguistically correct, but do not always have the required factual accuracy. The quality of the generated content depends largely on the training data, which can also contain bias. The use of such technologies in education raises questions about fairness, which are particularly important in AI-supported assessment processes. The considerations in this regard are all the more relevant as more and more educational institutions in Europe are discussing the use of such systems and evaluating their possibilities.

Additional information and deeper insights into the issues surrounding the role of AI in education can also be found in the KI Campus publication, which highlights various scenarios and fields of action in the education sector. The literature points out that an understanding of these technologies is essential in order to be able to meaningfully integrate them into everyday educational life and that responsible use is necessary.

The first series of lectures represents a step into the future of learning and illustrates how important it is that students and teachers acquire the skills to competently deal with new technologies. The networking of science and teaching at Bielefeld University makes a particularly important contribution to the discussion about the challenges and opportunities that generative AI brings to higher education.