For immediate release.

Contact: Steve Grubbs, steve@victoryxr.com

Professor Deanna Burney, of Florida A&M (FAMU), is not afraid to try something new in her class that teaches student-patient interaction. In fact, Professor Burney created more than 15 new AI patients avatars for students to interview and converse with through a Chrome browser simulation for her classroom this fall.

While classroom simulations are nothing new in higher education, artificial intelligence provided an opportunity to create simulated patients (sims) who provide human-like responses to questions. Before AI, simulations required students to choose questions from a set of choices and then receive  pre-canned responses, nothing like the free-wheeling conversations that go on in an actual healthcare setting. 

Students’ in Burney’s class will use the AI patient sims as they learn to ask the right questions and make decisions based on that information. Each AI sim has a unique background story and symptoms imbedded into its brain. In fact, a sim could be asked the same question 10 times and provide 10 slightly different answers, just like a human. 

Professor Ovell Hamilton of Morehouse College in Atlanta is taking a different approach with AI in his classroom. Rather than a patient sim, Hamilton created a more traditional AI teaching assistant to help students with questions about classroom procedures, course instruction and other key information he may not be able to provide on a 24/7 schedule. This AI TA is an extension of Hamilton providing a quick and convenient option for students to approach before scheduling office hours.

“AI is a complement to what we are already teaching. It was easy and straightforward,” said Professor Hamilton.

Schools and universities are using AI avatars in other ways as well. Indiana University built an AI sim for their class on negotiation so that students could practice negotiating commercial real estate contracts. The University of Iowa has a 3D digital twin of its iconic campus with a tour guide ready and willing to take students around the school grounds. 

Steve Grubbs, CEO of VictoryXR, expects students to get as much use out of the build-your-own AI tool as teachers do. “Students will be able to build characters from history and have them debate each other. Imagine AI Karl Marx debating AI Adam Smith. Just the exercise of building the AI debate would provide students with a deeper understanding of economics and history.”