AI: avatars of professors will review the exams of the last 5 years... and (perhaps) adjust the marks!

It won't happen in a few days, but the decision was taken unanimously (1), and with enthusiasm: all copies of students who have passed through the EDHEC Business School pre-master's programme between 2020 and 2025 will be de-archived and reviewed (2). Not by ‘humans’, but by artificial intelligence!

The practical and scientific protocols have not yet been finalised (3), but time is running out: since all the media and speakers are talking about it, it is a safe bet that AI will very quickly play a crucial role in higher education and we must not miss the boat (4).

The objective is simple since, thanks to an augmented AI tool (5), it involves re-examining students' exams, who will then receive their new adjusted and final grade...

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What... ?

If you have taken the time to browse through the references provided and/or if this initiative seemed frankly far-fetched to you, you will have realised that this text, posted online on 1 April, is part of the long tradition of ‘scientific hoaxes’ 🙂.

We hope it has made you smile, but it also allowsi to be pedagogical on two essential topics.

Firstly, regarding the information and references that should be identified when reading any text (on the web, social networks, etc.): who is the source? Who wrote the article? What sources and references were used? Are the statements vague or precise...? In this case, several red flags clearly arise.

On the other hand, on the subject itself, namely the place of artificial intelligence at EDHEC and, by extension, in higher education and research. What is the situation? Our institution and our professors have a dual role:

• conduct research aimed at better understanding the phenomenon, make recommendations and train & inform a wide audience - our own employees, our students, our speakers, the readers of EDHEC Vox, journalists, etc.;

• carry out supervised, progressive tests, particularly with our dedicated laboratory (the PiLab), to integrate AI into the processes - including, in fact, a part of the correction of exam papers!

On these two points, we invite you to read the EDHEC Vox articles and interviews recently published on our site (see below).

Finally, we would like to draw your attention to two points:

• Before the summer, we will be offering you a new issue of our EDHEC Vox magazine with numerous points of view on AI from our professors, partners, alumni and students;
• In the course of 2025, following the initial announcements relating to the consortium on responsible AI of which our school is a founding member, and the €20 million of planned investment in artificial intelligence (Generation 2050 plan), EDHEC will present new initiatives to accelerate the pedagogical and scientific aspects of this subject.

EDHEC Vox tackling the subject of artificial intelligence

AI-assisted grading: feedback on a full-scale test at EDHEC

Peter Daly, Emmanuelle Deglaire

In the education sector, artificial intelligence (AI) is raising great hopes: greater accessibility to knowledge without any language barriers, individualized teaching methods adapted to the needs of each learner, instant, personalized student feedback irrespective of time or place. There are also many fears... Read this article

4 questions for Emmanuelle Houet (EDHEC PiLab) on educational innovation and the role of artificial intelligence

Emmanuelle Houet

E. Houet: The PiLab is the educational innovation centre of EDHEC Business School. Created in 2014-2015, on the initiative of professors keen to exchange ideas and share their (best) teaching practices as well as everyday challenges, the PiLab has its origins in what were then bimonthly lunches: ‘Food for pedagogical thought’. Today, the PiLab comprises nine full-time staff, more than 50 online workshops every year... Read this interview

Women and digital health: a truly inclusive medicine?

Loick Menvielle

Connected health and, in particular, solutions using artificial intelligence now promise a more personalised and more effective form of medicine that is (theoretically) accessible to all. This digital transformation that we are witnessing responds to numerous health challenges... Read this article

Are managers at risk in an AI-driven future?

Wim Vandekerckhove

Business leaders are increasingly worried about AI’s disruptive effects on the future of work. Many workers fear job losses, but their anxiety also stems from the idea of AI making decisions about their work. Should we worry about a future with robot-managers? And are managers themselves at risk of losing their jobs?The short answer is no... Read this article

3 questions to Peter Daly and Julia Milner about Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Higher Education

Peter Daly, Julia Milner

P. Daly: AI can be utilized in a myriad of ways beyond exam correction (3). One significant application is providing feedback. AI, through proper prompts, can give more detailed and immediate feedback than human instructors. However, there are challenges, such as the potential for feedback to be too extensive or for AI to produce "hallucinations," where it generates nonsensical responses... Read this interview

[Case by case #7] "Chopard by Hylink: when artificial intelligence makes learning marketing easier

Marie-Cécile Cervellon, Loick Menvielle

M-C Cervellon: This online platform is dedicated to learning marketing concepts independently, i.e. without constant human intervention. It's an interactive course organised into progressive modules, which centralise resources and teaching activities in the form of situational exercises and self-assessment MCQs... Read this interview

“In Marketing research, analysis of images and video represents the next frontier for deeper insights”

Martin Wetzels

M. Wetzels: Marketing research is undergoing a profound transformation, fueled by the rapid growth of unstructured data sources. Today, researchers look far beyond traditional structured data, such as surveys, experiments, and secondary datasets, and increasingly focus on the vast, varied world of unstructured information... Read this interview

Beyond Analytics: Telling Stories With Data

Michelle Sisto

Experts estimate that the data generated by machines and humans in 2024 will exceed 140 zettabytes. That’s 1021 bytes or 1 trillion gigabytes—an unfathomable amount. This data explosion has transformed data into the “new gold” of the 21st century. However, the true “gold” of data lies not in its quantity, but in its potential to help us make sense of the present and anticipate the future... Read this article

How supply chain management can be transformed by generative AI

Sachin Kamble

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become an increasingly important topic these past years. This brought about a transformative shift in various domains, with generative AI standing at the forefront of this revolution. Generative AI (GAI) is a machine-learning model that is trained to create new data. We all know, for example, OpenAI’s GPT-4 and DALL-E ; these models are capable, in some ways, of mimicking human thinking and creativity... Read this article

From Ants to AI: Solving Complex Logistics Challenges with Nature-Inspired Algorithms and Machine Learning

Cédric Verbeeck

When an ant colony sends out workers to forage for food in a new territory, the ants initially wander aimlessly until they find a food source. As they walk, they leave small amounts of pheromones (which you could compare to our use of perfume to make ourselves more attractive to peers) on the ground, marking the path they have taken. This pheromones trail  gradually evaporates over time... Read this article

AI in HR: Are you cool with being recruited by a robot?

Maria Figueroa Armijos, Serge Da Motta Veiga

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the human resource management (HRM) industry faster than we notice. Sixty-five percent of organisations are already using AI-enabled tools in the hiring process, but only a third of job candidates are aware of the practice... Read this article

Events around AI

• (3 avril) IPoP Workshop | Quel avenir pour les données personnelles face à l’IA ?- https://www.edhec.edu/fr/news/ipop-workshop-quel-avenir-pour-les-donnees-personnelles-face-l-ia

• (27 mai) EDHEC AI & Finance Workshop - https://www.edhec.edu/fr/news/edhec-ai-finance-workshop-27-mai-nice-decouvrez-le-programme-et-inscrivez-vous

• (Février - mai) Empowering Future AI Leaders: EDHEC & Orange Launch Ethical AI Start-Up Challenge - https://www.edhec.edu/en/news/master/empowering-future-ai-leaders-edhec-and-orange-launch-ethical-ai-start-up-challenge

• (2024-2025) Le Summer Boot Camp du dispositif EDHEC Talents porte cette année sur l'intelligence artificielle - https://www.edhec.edu/fr/experience-etudiante/diversite-et-inclusion/egalite-des-chances/edhec-talents-lycees

• (2024-2025) EDHEC Alumni propose des centaines d'événements par an aux anciens étudiants de l'école. D'avril à juillet 2025, plusieurs rendez-vous sont proposés autour de l'intelligence artificielle - https://alumni.edhec.edu/fr/agenda/upcoming

• (2024-2025) A destination des intervenants externes, des professeurs permanents et des salariés, le Pilab a organisé cette année une dizaine de workshops sur l'IA & la pédagogie - https://www.edhec.edu/fr/recherche-et-faculte/corps-professoral-et-chercheurs/pedagogie

References

(1) Which governing body made this decision? On what date? Who were the voters or, at the very least, what was their profile...? If this text were not an April Fool's joke, the reader might be concerned about having so little information on such a high-impact decision.

(2) There would be many underlying issues to such an initiative, wouldn't there? And they would certainly affect all areas: ethics, personal data protection, logistics, regulations, and so on. This is why such a project would require the opinion of numerous governance and consultation bodies: the school's AI Transformation Taskforce (bringing together teachers, programme managers, management, etc.); the GDPR referent (who would certainly have expressed serious doubts here...); the Teaching Committee of the level concerned by the initiative; the directors of research and teaching departments under the responsibility of the Dean's Office.

(3) We are flirting with an oxymoron: for obvious reasons, an incomplete protocol cannot be put in place... and here again the formal and informal functioning of the school and the faculty is designed to supervise practices (cf (2)). Including the Research Integrity Review Committee of EDHEC, which is responsible for ‘examining and evaluating research practices within the institution to ensure that they comply with the standards of integrity and ethics established by the committee, particularly with regard to the collection, analysis and publication of data’.

(4) Jean de la Fontaine can certainly come to the rescue of readers taken aback by this idea because yes, ‘Rien ne sert de courir, il faut partir à point.’ and no doubt ‘On hasarde de perdre en voulant trop gagner’. More seriously, EDHEC, true to its ‘learning by doing’ pedagogy, favours a balanced approach centred on ‘augmented teachers’: they will not delegate entire sections of their activity to AI but will use these new tools to improve the quality of assessments and feedback, for the benefit of students and their training.

(5) You can see this in the EDHEC Vox articles and interviews dealing with AI and listed on this same page: it is essential to specify the tool used, how it is configured, the stage at which it intervenes in the process, etc. This is not the case in this April Fool's joke!

Photo by Nana Smirnova via Unsplash