--- title: "UCLA’s AI-Based Literature Class Ridiculed for Incomprehensible AI-Generated Textbook" description: "F For Fake UCLA has announced that, starting next year, it will offer a comparative literature course on medieval and Renaissance era writing that will make heavy use of AI-generated materials. Officially described as \"survey of literature from the Middle Ages to the 17th Century,\" this won't constitute supplemental stuff here and there, but the foundation of the entire class, including an AI-generated textbook, AI-generated assignments, and AI-generated resources for teaching assistants. The reaction from writers and academics has been one of outrage — but also mockery. That's because the cover for the course's AI-generated textbook is total fucking gobbledygook. […]" date: "2024-12-11" modified: "2024-12-11" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/ucla-ai-literature-class" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "education" - "generative ai" - "the digest" --- # UCLA’s AI-Based Literature Class Ridiculed for Incomprehensible AI-Generated Textbook ![UCLA says it is offering a new comparative literature course that will make heavy use of AI materials, included an AI-generated textbook.]() *\Image: UCLA (AI Generated Image)\* ## Dark Ages UCLA has [announced]() that, starting next year, it will offer a comparative literature course on medieval and Renaissance-era writing that will make heavy use of AI-generated materials. Officially described as "survey of literature from the Middle Ages to the 17th Century," this won't constitute supplemental stuff here and there, but the foundation of the entire class, including an AI-generated textbook, AI-generated assignments, and AI-generated resources for teaching assistants. The reaction from writers and academics [has been one of outrage]() — but also [mockery](). That's because the cover for the course's AI-generated textbook is total fucking gobbledygook. Nevermind the pseudo-illuminated-manucript-styled visuals that are all over the place — the text itself is *absolute nonsens*e. "Of Nerniacular Latin To An Evoolitun On Nance Langusages," reads prominently placed text on the textbook cover. https://twitter.com/AChillGhost/status/1866104181473616124 ## Closed Loop This is an almost too on the nose metaphor for the blatant shortcomings of generative AI. AI models can frequently get the facts wrong — if they're not just making them up — a phenomenon that the industry likes to call "[hallucinations]()" but is better described as "[bullshitting]()." They can also distort the original sources they're pulling from by inaccurately reproducing their content. In this case, the AI tool used to create the course materials was [Kudu](), a platform for creating digital textbooks. Kudu was created by another UCLA professor, which is probably why we're witnessing this forced-sounding plug. According to course professor Zrinka Stahuljak, she created the textbook and assignments by supplying her own course notes from previous versions of the class to the AI tool, which wouldn't pull from any outside sources, ostensibly making its output much more reliable. This is also supposed to discourage students from using other AIs to cheat, somehow. "It will only respond based on course content," Stahuljak said. "So it's there to help our students, but it also reduces the risk of them using ChatGPT to generate their homework assignments." ## Desertion of Duty The other big upside, Stahuljak argues, is that using AI saves professors like her a lot of time. "Normally, I would spend lectures contextualizing the material and using visuals to demonstrate the content," Stahuljak said in the statement. "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." So, instead of getting hours of actual instruction from their professor on key background about the primary sources they'll be reading, the students will get a lousy AI summary? And this is supposed to be an upgrade? Not according to Stahuljak's peers. "If you do this you should have your doctorate revoked and be thrown into the stocks at the center of the main university quad," [tweeted]() Dan Walden, a philologist and an assistant professor at The University of Tulsa. "This is abandonment of professional responsibility to a degree that would be comical if it weren't so self-serious." **More on AI:** *[AI Founder Promised Amazing Chatbot to Public Schools, Then Allegedly Spent the Money on a Lavish Wedding and Mansion]()* ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()