Skip to Main Content

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools

About this Guide

This guide is for informational purposes only.  It provides a (by no means exhaustive) collection of links and other resources about AI tools but does not advocate or advise against any particular tool. 

FOR STUDENTS: please consult with your instructor/professor before using any of these tools and for questions about responsible class use.

Artificial Intelligence Defined

"Traditional AI, often called Narrow or Weak AI, focuses on performing a specific task intelligently. It refers to systems designed to respond to a particular set of inputs. These systems have the capability to learn from data and make decisions or predictions based on that data. Imagine you're playing computer chess. The computer knows all the rules; it can predict your moves and make its own based on a pre-defined strategy. It's not inventing new ways to play chess but selecting from strategies it was programmed with. That's traditional AI - it's like a master strategist who can make smart decisions within a specific set of rules. Other examples of traditional AIs are voice assistants like Siri or Alexa, recommendation engines on Netflix or Amazon, or Google's search algorithm. These AIs have been trained to follow specific rules, do a particular job, and do it well, but they don’t create anything new."   

"Generative AI, on the other hand, can be thought of as the next generation of artificial intelligence. It's a form of AI that can create something new. Suppose you have a friend who loves telling stories. But instead of a human friend, you have an AI. You give this AI a starting line, say, 'Once upon a time, in a galaxy far away...'. The AI takes that line and generates a whole space adventure story, complete with characters, plot twists, and a thrilling conclusion. The AI creates something new from the piece of information you gave it. This is a basic example of Generative AI. It's like an imaginative friend who can come up with original, creative content. What’s more, today’s generative AI can not only create text outputs, but also images, music and even computer code. Generative AI models are trained on a set of data and learn the underlying patterns to generate new data that mirrors the training set." 

From:  Marr, B. (2023, July 22).  The Difference Between Generative AI And Traditional AI: An Easy Explanation For AnyoneThe Difference Between Generative AI And Traditional AI: An Easy Explanation For Anyone. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2023/07/24/the-difference-between-generative-ai-and-traditional-ai-an-easy-explanation-for-anyone/

Grounded Tools
These tools combine training data with real-time, external information, providing more accurate and up-to-date responses. They are ideal for tasks that require real-time data, research, or fact-checking.

Non-Grounded Tools
These tools generate responses based only on their training data and do not access real-time, external sources. They are best for tasks that rely on creativity or work based on existing knowledge.