There are moments with AI that feel like we’re passing a threshold there’s no coming back from. The latest example is happening at UCLA, where a professor is having AI create the textbook, assignments and teaching assistant resources for her class, Survey of Literature: Middle Ages to 17th Century.
Professor Zrinka Stahuljak is using an AI tool called Kudu, created by UCLA professor of physics and astronomy Alexander Kusenko and a former doctoral student Warren Essey. They bill Kudu as a “high-quality, low-cost” way for students to access all the information they need, while professors focus on teaching.
Kudu pulls from PowerPoint presentations, YouTube videos, course notes and other materials Professor Stahuljak provides it. According to UCLA, it shouldn’t take up more than 20 hours of a professor’s time and they can edit the materials afterward. The resulting textbook is available digitally for $25 and can be printed or used with audio readers. Kudu also uses the provided materials to respond to anonymous queries from students. Plus, it can identify whether over half of a student’s content is AI-generated.
“Normally, I would spend lectures contextualizing the material and using visuals to demonstrate the content. But now all of that is in the textbook we generated, and I can actually work with students to read the primary sources and walk them through what it means to analyze and think critically,” said Stahuljak in a statement. “It allows us to spend more time teaching basic analytical skills, critical thinking and reading skills, in a consistent manner — the things professors are best at doing.” She plans to use Kudu for other courses in the future. The AI-powered tool is already being tested this semester in an introduction to history class and will be available for Stahuljak’s course in 2025.
We’ll have to see how successful this will be and, critically, if AI will remain a tool for teachers or be a “low-cost” way to replace them.
