University of Michigan Launches AI App Store
The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich., recently announced the launch of the Michigan AI App Store, according to a university news release. The service allows faculty, students, and staff the ability to connect university AI tools with their own personal services like Gmail, Google Calendar, Dropbox, and more. The connections, dubbed “M-Connectors,” import information from these personal services into the university’s conversational AI program, U-M GPT; this, in turn, lets the GPT tap into relevant information from personal emails or calendar appointments to respond to user prompts.
“U-M has been building AI tools for our community. M-Connectors is an important next step because it helps those tools work with the information people already use in their daily lives,” said the university’s vice president for information technology and chief information officer, Ravi Pendse. “That added context can make AI more useful for learning, research and work, while people remain in control of how they use it.”
Connecting Canvas, the university’s online learning management system, allows students to bring their course schedules and assignment due dates & rubrics for all of their classes. It also gives faculty new ways to work with course information. Within the Michigan AI App Store, users can opt-in to select which M-Connectors to use.
“More information can make an AI response more useful, but it does not replace human judgment,” Pendse said. “People still need to ask good questions, think critically about what AI provides, and decide what to do next. Human-centered AI means keeping people at the center of those choices.” Further information is available on the University of Michigan website.
About the Author
Matt Jones is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. He can be reached at [email protected].