EDHEC launches its first artificial intelligence hackathon

In Nice, then in Lille, some 1,200 EDHEC International BBA students familiarised themselves with good practices to apply when using AI. 40 facilitators trained in this new educational format guided students through the different stages of the workshop. As a warm-up to the hackathon, EDHEC organised a conference under the heading “Using AI, without being subservient to it”, led by Clément Lemainque, professor, trainer and conference lecturer.

AI training

During the conference, Clément Lemainque discussed the rules for writing a prompt, as well as the different tools and the various types of generative AI (text, image, audio, etc.), along with good practices for verifying sources and displaying transparency when using AI. In addition to encouraging responsible usage, the conference had participants consider the impacts of AI, whether in terms of security (data confidentiality, misuse of AI), the environment or health (risk of cognitive atrophy).

Using their critical faculties

Students then began the hackathon with an exercise designed to develop their creativity. Arranged into groups, they interacted with different AIs to define the components of the identity of their teams (names, logo, slogan). The goal was to get them to prompt correctly, in order to create the most original characteristics in both visual and text forms. The second part of the event featured a workshop during which the groups had to analyse a corpus of texts and images and debate whether they were produced by a human or an AI. The students searched for clues and analysed the items of content objectively, in order to determine their veracity. “The students do not have access to a computer in this exercise”, explained Clément Lemainque. “The aim is to get them to ask a lot of questions, because it’s sometimes hard to identify if a photo or a text was produced by AI or not. They have to exercise their critical faculties. It’s also an excellent exercise for reinforcing their powers of observation”.

Recognising AI’s limits

During the first part of the hackathon, each group of students had to prepare an argument regarding a question of society related to AI. As part of this task they created a presentation with the help of several AI tools, in which they expressed their ideas and listed the sources used. The groups then presented their work to the facilitators. By alternating between consideration of AI-related issues, work with and without AI, and oral communication of key ideas, the hackathon demonstrated the importance of using AI, while keeping control over the material produced and communicated.

“This first AI hackathon put students on an equal footing regarding their knowledge of, and proficiency in, AI tools, and also their understanding of the associated limits”, underlined Hager Jemel, Director of the EDHEC International BBA. “The aim was to make them aware of their responsibilities and to increase their powers of discernment, while also showing them the added value to be had through the alliance of humans and AI. In this respect, we wanted to confront them with issues related to the verification of sources and to intellectual honesty, firstly through the conference and then via the group exercises. At EDHEC, we want our students to leverage AI in a way that enhances their learning - on particular subjects, for example - while ensuring they remain objective, so as not to become dependent on it”.