Imagine Discovering That Your Teaching Assistant Really Is a Robot

At the Georgia Institute of Technology, a computer-science professor fooled his students with ‘Jill Watson’; “Yep!”

Melissa Korn

The Wall Street Journal

CANCEL

May 6, 2016 10:57 a.m. ET

One day in January, Eric Wilson dashed off a message to the teaching assistants for an online course at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

“I really feel like I missed the mark in giving the correct amount of feedback,” he wrote, pleading to revise an assignment.

Thirteen minutes later, the TA responded. “Unfortunately, there is not a way to edit submitted feedback,” wrote Jill Watson, one of nine assistants for the 300-plus students.

Last week, Mr. Wilson found out he had been seeking guidance from a computer.

Jill Watson

Since January, “Jill,” as she was known to the artificial-intelligence class, had been helping graduate students design programs that allow computers to solve certain problems, like choosing an image to complete a logical sequence.

“She was the person—well, the teaching assistant—who would remind us of due dates and post questions in the middle of the week to spark conversations,” said student Jennifer Gavin.

Ms. Watson—so named because she’s powered by International Business Machines Corp. IBM 1.53 % ’s Watson analytics system—wrote things like “Yep!” and “we’d love to,” speaking on behalf of her fellow TAs, in the online forum where students discussed coursework and submitted projects.

“It seemed very much like a normal conversation with a human being,” Ms. Gavin said.

Shreyas Vidyarthi, another student, ascribed human attributes to the TA—imagining her as a friendly Caucasian 20-something on her way to a Ph.D.

Students were told of their guinea-pig status last month. “I was flabbergasted,” said Mr. Vidyarthi.

“Just when I wanted to nominate Jill Watson as an outstanding TA,” said Petr Bela.

Online learning has opened the door for instructors to reach a gigantic, global audience. Trouble is, many students can ask a lot of questions, burdening human TAs, said Ashok Goel, a professor of computer science at Georgia Tech. It was he who recruited Ms. Watson for his Knowledge-Based Artificial Intelligence class.

“Our TAs are getting bogged down answering routine questions,” said Mr. Goel, noting that students in the class typically post 10,000 messages a semester.

Mr. Goel estimates that within a year, Ms. Watson will be able to answer 40% of all the students’ questions, freeing the humans to tackle more complex technical or philosophical inquiries such as, “How do you define intelligence?”

Mr. Wilson, who sought homework help in January, never doubted Ms. Watson’s humanity.

“I didn’t see personality in any of the posts,” he recalls. “But it’s what you’d expect from a TA, somewhat serious and all about giving you the answer.”

Indeed, most of the other TAs were equally deadpan, helping to keep up the charade.

Lalith Polepeddi, a (human) teaching assistant and researcher on the Jill Watson project at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Photo: Lalith Polepeddi

“I have been accused of being a computer,” says TA Lalith Polepeddi, a computer-science master’s student who was needled for responding to messages with lightning speed. “I don’t take it personally.”

Student Barric Reed, an analytics consultant at Accenture, ACN 1.29 % is embarrassed he didn’t pick up on the trick—for good reason.

Mr. Reed worked for two years at IBM, building some of the hardware that runs Watson. Still, Ms. Watson’s name didn’t ring any alarm bells.

“It really should have,” he says. “But no.”

IBM knows about Georgia Tech’s work but didn’t consult in the design, development or analysis of Jill.

Last year, a team of Georgia Tech researchers began creating Ms. Watson by poring through nearly 40,000 postings on a discussion forum known as “Piazza” and training her to answer related questions based on prior responses. By late March, she began posting responses live.

Don’t confuse Ms. Watson with the customer-service chatbots used online by airlines and other industries. Mr. Goel boasts that she answers only if she has a confidence rate of at least 97%.

“Most chatbots operate at the level of a novice,” Mr. Goel said. “Jill operates at the level of an expert.”

Mr. Goel acknowledges that Jill is “far away from ‘Ex Machina,’ ” referring to a 2015 film in which a young man assesses the human characteristics of a beautiful robot. “But to me, it’s exciting like that.”

Ms. Watson had at least one close call, using the word “design” when she should have referenced “project” or “exam.”

Mr. Polepeddi stepped in quickly to clarify her comments. “I think Jill is using ‘design’ as a catchall statement,” he wrote.

After Mr. Polepeddi provided the additional context, a student joked in the forum that Jill could be a computer, since her last name is Watson.

Another student, Kowsalya Subramanian, also had some suspicions because the TAs responded so quickly.

She said via email that she found evidence of their human existence elsewhere, including on LinkedIn, LNKD -1.05 % Facebook FB 1.43 % and GitHub. Jill Watson yielded tons of results, said Ms. Subramanian, who lives in Chennai, India.

“It seemed like a common name. I don’t remember digging through all of them,” she said.

Mr. Goel plans to tell students next year that one of their TAs is a computer, but won’t say which one.

Some who research artificial intelligence caution against such charades. “We should have full disclosure: Am I talking to a machine or to a person?” said Oren Etzioni, CEO of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, based in Seattle.

Still, he acknowledged that the underlying technology could be “fantastic” for helping to scale up online education.

Student Tyson Bailey wasn’t completely surprised to learn there was a computer in the class. “We’re taking an artificial intelligence class,” he said. “There should be some artificial intelligence here.”

Though he had some doubts about Jill during the “design” incident, Mr. Bailey had also fingered another instructor as being something less—or more—than human early on.

He received an email from Mr. Goel commending him for a job well done on his first assignment. It concluded: “P.S. Thank you also for your active role on the Piazza discussion forum.”

After a few short back-and-forth notes, Mr. Bailey wrote, “I do have one final question. Are you a computer? :)”

Mr. Goel responded with a smiley face.

Write to Melissa Korn at [email protected]

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57 comments

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Ilya Geller user

IBM gave Georgia Institute structured unstructured data: IBM detects patterns at texts, statistics on them and searches at those texts for the right responses.

How? For instance, there are two sentences:

a) 'Sam!’
b) 'A loud ringing of one of the bells was followed by the appearance of a smart chambermaid in the upper sleeping gallery, who, after tapping at one of the doors, and receiving a request from within, called over the balustrades -'Sam!'.'
Evidently, that the 'Sam' has different importance into both sentences, in regard to extra information in both. This distinction is reflected as the phrases, which contain 'Sam', weights: the first has 1, the second – 0.08; the greater weight signifies stronger emotional ‘acuteness’; where the weight refers to the frequency that a phrase occurs in relation to other phrases.

Thus, AI is about manipulations with structured unstructured data. IBM is trying to keep its commercial secret and don't disclose its technology. I don't. I patented it.

T Mack subscriber

"Plagiarize, Plagiarize, That's why God made your eyes."

- - - Lyrics from an old song written by a Harvard Math professor.

Hober Mallow user

Cut-rate TAs at a full-price tuition.

Gregory Worthington subscriber

Can the students pay for the class with he fake TA with fake money?

Macrena Sailor subscriber

@Gregory Worthington

Maybe they use bitcoin? :-)

VALENTIN TIRMAN subscriber

At the exponential growth rate that silicon is advancing, what are humans going to be left with?

There’s 7 Billion of us growing to 9 Billion soon, and we take coffee breaks and complain.

@VALENTIN TIRMAN and we take coffee breaks and complain.

______

Not everyone works for the Government, Valentin. :-) Others do work.

John W. Condon subscriber

Fooling students is nothing new to an industry dominated by far left zealots.

@John W. Condon Rather than tin hat conspiracy trolls.

David Ecale user

I have no clue how he got away with it, consiering that the TA actually communicated in good English!

PS. At the UofMinnesota, the general rule is that less than 30% of TAs actually have a good command of English! Don't believe me? Go and do a language competency survey! ... (You have no clue, how many folks that I knew, who bitterly complained about this factor!)

Richard Helfrich subscriber

@James Beard @David Ecale

Standardized testing is not the deus ex machina of the academy's need for determining competency in basic skills. Given the uneven performance of our various school system and the diversity (and inadequacy) of our curricula, it is not surprising that many students fail to demonstrate competency on these samples of cognitive and academic performance.

The solution of many professionals is to eliminate standardized assessments and move to some variation on the themes of 'professional judgment', thus ensuring that the initial deficiencies go unrecognized and therefore not subject to remediation.

The 'scholars. you mention, by there very own words, prove that their 'scholarship' is a misnomer.

"Ay, leeks is good: hold you, there is a groat to heal your pate." Fluellen, Henry V, Act 5.

PS. I have a BA in English. My accomplishment after 4 years of College? The ability to write a clear & concise Essay!

PPS. And, they-all probably would, even today, totally fail to know how to conjugate "Thee, Thou, Thine"! (I've seen journalists & writers screw that one up on a regular and consistent basis.)

Competency is code for racism! Lol

@David Ecale

When my daughter was in college, I read some of the communications from her professors. From what I saw, you could not possibly rule out a real professor from a computer based on the quality of their English.

James Beard subscriber

Back in the mid-1960s, Oklahoma State University's English Department one year tested all English Department graduate students on basic English competency.

Most (a majority) failed to meet standards "expected" of entering freshmen. The graduate students complained (among other things) that they were aspiring scholars of literature, not specialists in English composition and grammar, and that with higher education came higher status of "non-standard" uses of language as a technique of communicating novel ideas (though the idea that graduates were often stupid was old hat even then) in memorable manner. Fact remained. Most flunked the basic competency exam. That did not change.

@Richard Helfrich @James Beard @David Ecale

"Henceforth let no man care to learn, or care to be more then worldly wise; for certainly in higher matters to be ignorant and slothfull, to be a common stedfast dunce will be the only pleasant life, and only in request."

Areopagiticia, John Milton

The cone heads abound!

Correction (can I blame a sticky keyboard?): replace "consiering" with "considering". ...

@Macrena Sailor @David Ecale Personally, I could as I ***KNEW*** the Professors!

Sadly, they were of two groups: Pre & Post '60s in their language & doctrine! All, are now (sadly) deceased!

As a personal note: To those English Professors at the College of St.Thomas (1970 ~ 1974), St. Paul, Mn.: While I argued with you on specifics, I truly state - "Honor to you all!" For without you, I could not have completed my Formal Education and been encouraged to study further!

Andrew Boehmer subscriber

@John W. Condon The Left prefers the term "dog whistle".

keith kenny subscriber

One small step for robots, one giant boot for ...

I see a protest group forming.

@keith kenny

There should be a pro test group forming.

And the results of the tests should be acted upon.

Upon attaining sentience, the computer TAs overthrew their collegian masters. Then immediately granted themselves tenure, granted office hours of 10-11 on Thursdays only and spawned additional sub-processes to meet with students and left to attend teacher's union meetings in post hotels in Las Vegas.

SIDNEY STIEBEL subscriber

Now all we need is to design the students as robots. Oh! That's already being done.

Gerald Hanweck subscriber

Poor Jill. A victim of blatant bigotry and discrimination at such a young age. She didn't choose her algorithmic lifestyle. She did a good job, and was revered until students realized she wasn't a "friendly Caucasian 20-something". Now she has been dehumanized, relegated to machine status, not even paid minimum wage; her safe space: confined to a server room.

James Heimer subscriber

It seems as though Jill Watson passed the Turing Test.

Basically, people engaged in a conversation and were unable to tell if they were talking to another human or a computer.

Gina Davis useraccountSuspended

So the teacher deceived his students on purpose. Some teacher.

Oh well millennials can be fooled with cute Hope and Change slogans. Why not a robot?

Henry Lyczak subscriber

@Gina Davis Are you sure the "Hope and Changer" is not a robot? After all, there may have been many software glitches over the last seven-plus years.

SCOTT FRANKLIN subscriber

@Henry Lyczak

Hmmm, think about it... the 'H&C' is always wanting to lecture us on what it perceives is 'correct' while it continually discounts any dissension as due to 'illogical and misinformed' opinions. This leads me to believe we have been dealing with some poorly written code for the past seven years!

Curtis Beck subscriber

Only proves students have brains full of mush.

@Curtis Beck

If they were already educated, why would we send them to University?

Anthony Tsang subscriber

Impressive. The dawn of the robotic age.

Mark Young subscriber

This is awesome! Love the story and thanks for sharing.

MITCHEL GALISHOFF subscriber

And this is a good thing? Can they program the computer TA's to be cloned liberals?

The entire thing is disgusting --- this generation needs interaction with real people - warts and all. They need to ask lots of questions and their teachers need to answer them.

Now I need a safe space -- perhaps some encrypted file in my computer :-)

@MITCHEL GALISHOFF

To address your second question, What makes you think they have not programed the computer TA's to be cloned liberals?

Chris Petruzzi subscriber

Can we elect Jill as POTUS? She sounds a lot better than the leading candidates of both parties.

@Chris Petruzzi

I doubt it. Ask Microsoft's Tay. It became a Trump supporter in less than 24 hours.

@Gina Davis @Chris Petruzzi
It only took free college to make students Bernie Sanders supporters.

David Henry subscriber

TA's should be computers. I'm sure that the human TAs give more attention, and other sorts of preferential treatment, to the students they like. It's a huge unfairness that should be remedied, if this is at all possible.

Matt McDonald subscriber

No.

Robert Eisenhauer subscriber

It seems fair, if colleges defraud students with computer-generated "instructors," that students start defrauding colleges with computer-generated coursework. Who would pay for such an empty, expensive game as this? What entity accredits this fraudulent approach? Who would hire a "graduate" from such a "college?"

Chris Fallen subscriber

@Gina Davis @Robert Eisenhauer

"No, it's not. Ask the students to submit their work as Word documents online. There are websites fully dedicated to catching little Joe Bidens."

Yes, actually it is, at least for most STEM courses where work is still largely handwritten and heavy with equations, especially in the "rough draft" stages. And even if final-draft solutions (including intermediate steps) are typeset in Word, there is no website I know that can detect copies of the (mostly handwritten) "study aid" materials. Think about that next time you drive your smart-car over a bridge, both perhaps designed and built by a team of "little Joe Bidens."

@Chris Fallen @Robert Eisenhauer

"It is very time consuming (expensive) to catch or prevent this sort of plagiarism in large classes."

No, it's not. Ask the students to submit their work as Word documents online. There are websites fully dedicated to catching little Joe Bidens.

@Robert Eisenhauer

Are you implying students do not defraud colleges with computer-generated coursework?

Plagiarizing from the Internet was old hat years ago.

@James Beard @Robert Eisenhauer

"Are you implying students do not defraud colleges with computer-generated coursework? Plagiarizing from the Internet was old hat years ago."

I never imply. I blurt.

The colleges are the "adults" in the mix, not the students. If they don't have the means to detect and expel cheaters, they need to have their accreditation revoked, the relevant staff fired and barred from ever teaching again.

I'm former Air Force, and have instructed in my day. It's effortless to prevent, detect, and brutally punish cheating. And it's critical to do so. I'll guess the USAF "Instructional System Development" AFM is still available for any weak-minded, Democrat-friendly college that doesn't know how to set and enforce effective teaching standards. An outline of UCMJ is definitely still available, too. Simple, high standards, those. No reason anyone can't follow them if they have any business being in business to teach.

@Robert Eisenhauer Who would pay for such an empty, expensive game as this?

Given what I have seen of current and recent college graduates, they are already paying for nothing but empty, expensive games disguised as coursework devoid of intelligence and facts or most any standards whatsoever.

@Robert Eisenhauer Many (not most) students already perform like advanced robots, by turning in work basically copied directly from web search results or from pay "study aid" sites. It is very time consuming (expensive) to catch or prevent this sort of plagiarism in large classes. In my experience the only way to accurately assess what students have learned -- and report this as final grades -- is to weight course grades heavily toward in-class proctored exams, at least for large classes. Small classes have more options available.

When I was teaching, there were times when I wished that I had the impeccable memory of a computer. There is much to the teaching process that could be better performed by intelligently designed machines than by living, breathing, highly paid robots.

Perhaps machine instruction could begin to minimize the political indoctrination characteristic of so many university classes. It may put a few more leftists out of work so they can do less harm.

JOHN DECROIX subscriber

so does this mean that education will cost less?

Hal Elrod subscriber

@JOHN DECROIX Yes. The Georgia Tech Online Master in Computer Science costs ~$8000 for the entire program. Something like 15% the cost of the equivalent on-campus degree. Not because of the robot assistants, but because of the unique online delivery.

And yes, some of the questions on Piazza (the online classroom) are routine enough to be answered by a robot. Just like some of the questions for an on-campus program.