Students at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) can now receive assistance on any university-related topic from President Keith Whitfield through an online avatar.
Digital President Whitfield — an artificial intelligence version of the UNLV President — offers guidance to current and prospective students on topics including academic programs, student health, and mentorships.
In creating the online avatar, Whitfield was inspired by UNLV alumni at the school’s gaming research center — Black Fire Innovation — who designed AI versions of real people.
“Since I joined UNLV in fall 2020 during the pandemic one of the key takeaways for me has been to find more creative ways to be accessible,” Whitfield said in a statement. “Realizing that I can’t talk to all 30,000 of our students, we embarked on this one-of-a-kind project to apply artificial intelligence to the challenge.”
‘A Digital Twin’
Developing the AI avatar took over seven months. This included President Whitfield spending several hours at a recording studio reading information about UNLV that was included in the AI.
Referred to as his “digital twin” by Russ Logan, one of the developers who built the program, Digital President can address around 1,000 questions concerning topics such as financial aid, campus safety, and mental health awareness. Not only that, the AI is designed to have a one-on-one chat on a wide array of UNLV-related topics.
As the program is still relatively new, it is not without its hiccups. Digital President can be slow to respond at times and sometimes misunderstand questions.
Developers at AI Media Lab — the company that built the avatar — hope to learn and improve as the AI continues to interact with students and staff.
