Real Intelligence: Teaching in the Era of Generative AI

For teachers already facing the challenges of educating, the rise of artificial intelligence, especially in large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, can seem overwhelming. As high school and college students become more proficient in using AI, their teachers can feel left behind—and at least some of them are panicking about it. Some are even quitting their jobs.

That’s why Butler professors James F. McGrath and Ankur Gupta have teamed up to write Real Intelligence: Teaching in the Era of Generative AI. McGrath is a humanities professor who has taught across his university’s core curriculum; he had to learn quickly what LLMs can and cannot do, and has given talks on creative and effective pedagogy in the age of AI. Gupta is a computer science professor who understands the ins and outs of LLMs. Here they have teamed up to produce a book for nonspecialists on how to counteract—and even incorporate—this groundbreaking new technology.

In Real Intelligence, the authors walk readers through the basics of what AI is and isn’t, and strategies educators can use not only to make sense of the technology, but even to acquaint students with it—on teachers’ own terms. The authors show readers ways of working with AI that make cheating with it far less practical or feasible for students, and even offers on ideas for how to help students engage with LLMs as conversation partners in their research. Indeed, this book will help teachers prepare students to live in a world with AI, and thus fulfill their calling to equip students for life in a changing world.

Why respond to this ever-evolving technology by writing a book? After all, skeptics may wonder whether a book might be outdated by the time it goes to print. But we already know now the basics of what we’re facing, the authors argue. And there’s a timelessness in how we should respond. This challenge, like the others before it, requires us to think carefully about how we teach, how we test, and how we evaluate students. Even if AI were to disappear tomorrow, what the authors are arguing for would improve student learning.

For educators, for parents, for administrators, this is no time for panic—but it’s no time for business as usual, either. Instead, it’s time for a fresh look at the kind of learning that can navigate both the limits and the possibilities of AI, and thus prepare us all to understand the technology that is quickly becoming an unavoidable—and necessary—part of our lives.