University of Pisa exam with artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence is compulsory to pass the exam. It is happening at the University of Pisa, in the Advanced programming course of the master's degree in Computer science, where AI has been integrated into the training course instead of being considered a tool to be limited or kept on the fringes of the classroom.

The course, taught in the first semester by professors Antonio Cisternino and Andrea Corradini, has been completely redesigned to respond to a transformation in the labour market that is already taking place, as shown by the estimated 50-70 thousand jobs lost last year in the global big tech sector due to artificial intelligence. 'The job of the programmer is changing radically,' Cisternino explains. AI will write more and more code. The question is: what skills should a computer scientist have when he is no longer the one who writes it himself? A different, more critical and aware role is needed'. Hence the decision to shift the focus from the ability to 'write code', as computer scientists say, to the ability to read, understand and evaluate it. A paradigm shift that concerns not only software development, but all areas in which the operator becomes a supervisor of intelligent systems.

At UniPi, artificial intelligence was used in content design, classroom teaching and final evaluation. A pre-trained generative transformer (the so-called Gpt) has been developed that is capable of producing teaching material from lecture transcripts or to process simulations and interactive materials. But the most innovative element concerns the final examination. Students had to carry out a project using AI. With what results, the lecturer himself explains: "The projects were of excellent quality, which means that when students have a solid foundation, they are able to use artificial intelligence in a meaningful and non-passive way," Cisternino concludes.