National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) has become Taiwan' s first university to establish a task force dedicated to generative AI. Beyond offering university-wide AI literacy courses and workshops, NTHU has incorporated generative AI into new humanities and social sciences courses, such as history and sociocultural analysis. These courses aim to guide students majoring in Chinese, history, education, law, and management to effectively utilize AI tools, fostering next-generation research and innovation.
NTHU President Hocheng Hong emphasized the transformative impact of generative AI when combined with expertise from the humanities and social sciences. He likened this development to the adoption of personal computers in the 1980s, highlighting opportunities for students across all disciplines to engage with AI. Hocheng noted that applications such as AI-powered translation and art generation require input from language and arts professionals, while developing empathetic companion robots demands expertise from sociology and anthropology.
Dean of Academic Affairs Wu Yung-Hsien introduced a new online micro-course, Introduction to Humanities and Social Sciences AI, created by the university' s Center for Humanities and Social Sciences AI Applications and Development. The course provides foundational AI knowledge for humanities students, who can also pursue more in-depth AI studies through basic and advanced tracks offering 19 and 21 credits, respectively.
This semester, five new courses have been launched by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the College of Technology Management, and Tsing Hua Academy. These courses integrate generative AI into topics such as technology and society, sociocultural analysis, historical research, and law and policy. The School of Education had already introduced a big data analytics course last semester, and the Biomedical School’s medical humanities course now incorporates AI teaching as well.
One of the standout new courses, Generative AI Commands for Historical Learning and Research, is taught by Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Li Zhuo-Ying. Li explained that this course leverages ChatGPT to analyze historical materials, summarize key points, identify issues, and foster critical thinking. The class will produce a guide to effective AI command usage in historical research, helping researchers avoid common pitfalls when using generative AI.
The course focuses on two essential skills for applying generative AI: how to ask the right questions and how to critically evaluate AI-generated responses. By honing these skills, students learn to identify which questions elicit meaningful answers and discern the best quality responses.
Li also highlighted the importance of understanding AI' s strengths and limitations for history students. For example, ChatGPT excels at adding punctuation to Classical Chinese texts, achieving 90% accuracy—far better than a novice. However, it may fabricate nonexistent sources when asked to suggest directions for historical research.
Students have already begun exploring generative AI applications in their work. Hong Jui-Chen, a senior in the humanities and social sciences undergraduate program, used ChatGPT last semester in his screenwriting projects. While the AI tool excelled at gathering materials and interpreting scripts, its stories lacked originality and uniqueness, reinforcing his belief that AI cannot replace human creativity.
Wu Ting-Yi, a sophomore majoring in Chinese, shared her enthusiasm for AI and how it has shaped her academic and career aspirations. She plans to combine her expertise in linguistics with AI to explore natural language processing, aiming to enhance AI’s ability to understand and communicate effectively in human language.