UT Enterprise Technology launched UT Spark on Monday as a free generative artificial intelligence platform for all students and staff.
Cole Camplese, vice president for technology for UT Enterprise Technology, wrote in a campus-wide email that UT Spark can help users work out ideas, summarize research and brainstorm for projects through its AI models powered by OpenAI and ChatGPT-4o. Spark is tied to users’ official UT accounts and is made possible through a University partnership with Microsoft, which gives users additional access to Microsoft Copilot, he said.
“Essentially, what you see is ChatGPT,” Camplese said. “The difference is that (UT Spark) provides our audiences with protected data controls, so the content you upload is not then moved back to the cloud and being trained by the public (large language models).”
Coming soon, users will be able to build AI agents to automate daily tasks and answer specific questions with public content from across the University’s webpages, Camplese wrote. He said to think of agents as intelligent, AI-powered bots that move content from one location to another.
“Let’s say you are taking an upper-division statistics course and you want your agent to act in a very specific way related to that,” Camplese said. “You want it to quiz you, not give you answers, (and) in your instructions, you can say, ‘Here’s the textbook or the website information about this. I want you to learn this, but I don’t want you to give me answers to my questions.’”
Julie Schell, assistant vice provost of academic technology, said the University recently created guidelines for responsible AI use in teaching and learning. Although the institution offers AI-powered resources, Schell said it is important for students to use them appropriately.
“The first most important thing to do when you’re thinking about using AI on campus here is, yes, use the tools that we provide access to, but always keep in mind those limitations and make sure that your use is intentional,” Schell said.
Camplese said leading-edge AI tool subscriptions can cost $30 per month, so he feels proud that the University can offer them for free.
“The equitable access of AI is critical, because it’s a foundational skill that is going to empower the next generation of jobs,” Camplese said. “I do not believe that UT can be a leader if we’re not engaged in this in a real way. I refuse to allow our students to be left behind.”
