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Quick Guide to Using Generative AI for Professors

Feeling overwhelmed by all the talk of AI? Are you afraid that you’ll neve keep pace with the rapid advancements? Don’t have the time to devote to learning all about AI and keep up with everything else on your plate? This quick guide can help you get started. Instead of learning all the ins-and-outs of generative AI, this guide will get you using GAI in under 5 minutes. The goal is to show you a few ways that AI can make your life easier by integrating it into your workflow.

Please note that you should not include any sensitive information in your prompts.  



Step One: Sign Up for an Account

Begin by creating an account on a Generative AI platform. For a comparison of different AI platforms, visit this page. We suggest starting with the free version of ChatGPT or Copilot. 



Step Two: Responding to Emails

One way GAI can help make your life easier is by lessening the time you spend replying to emails. Especially those emails you’ve been avoiding. 

Scenario 1: You receive the following email: “Hey prof! I have to miss your class on Friday because I have a job interview. Please let me know if I miss anything important. - Billy”

Your first instinct is to write a terse response. Your second is to ignore it because you’re afraid you won’t be in the right headspace to respond. Instead, try having ChatGPT craft a response. 

Scenario 2: You are slammed with student conferences when the following email comes across your desktop: “Dear Pat, Marcy, and Jim, Our International Moot Court team is in final preparations for the competition. We are looking for judges to help the team prepare. It will only take an hour of your time. Please let me know which of the following times work for you: Tuesday at 7; Wednesday at 7; Thursday at 6. I appreciate your continued support of this valuable opportunity for our students. Best, Bob.”

Looking at your schedule, you see that, while you technically could make Wednesday at 7, you are afraid that you simply don’t have any extra time to spare. You have decided to politely decline but are feeling so overwhelmed that you don’t want to take the time to reply. Instead, you decide to have ChatGPT reply for you. 

Scenario 3: Apply It to Your Own Emails

Now, take an email from your inbox that you've been delaying in responding to. Use ChatGPT to help formulate a response. You’ll notice it probably isn’t perfect; you might have to edit it. In fact, you might have to spend as much time editing it as you would in writing it. But eventually, you’ll get better at prompting and AI will get better at responding (more to come on that in the Intermediate guide).