This advanced search tool responds to your questions about academic and social life at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Using the GPT-4 large language model, the Illinois Assistant offers answers based on public information on University of Illinois and other affiliated, trusted websites.
Ask Questions
- Type a question into the prompt box. Using correct spelling and grammar will help generate a more relevant response, but capitalization doesn’t matter.
- You can ask up to 20 questions per day about university services, campus events, academic resources, and other aspects of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
- Be sure your questions follow the guidelines on appropriate content.
- Once you have received a response, provide feedback on its quality. This will help improve the accuracy of the tool.
Provide Feedback
If the response is accurate and helpful, tap the thumbs up symbol. Positive feedback provides valuable information on how the Illinois Assistant is doing.
If the response is wrong or not helpful, tap the thumbs down symbol.
- Add your feedback in the prompt box.
- Be as specific as possible.
- If you receive a link as part of the response, click on it to make sure it works and is informative.
- Report any dead link or incorrect link.
- Provide comments about the link’s usefulness.
Faculty and staff can provide general feedback through the feedback form. Select the “Share feedback and ideas” radio button, put “Illinois Assistant” in the Summary field, and be as specific as possible with your comments.
Troubleshooting Tips
Ignore Repeated Responses
- A response may be repeated back to you after you tap the thumbs down symbol and submit a comment; this is a known issue we are working to fix. Please ignore the repeated response and proceed with asking your next question.
Check for Updates
- Check for updates to the Illinois app in the App Store or Play Store and install them if available.
Quit and Restart the App
- If you encounter an error message, try quitting the app.
- Restart the app to see if the issue is resolved.
- If you have restarted the app and continue to receive multiple error messages, please try other queries. This is a known issue we are working to fix, but it may resolve itself after several questions, which will allow you to continue testing.
Restart Your Device
- Sometimes restarting your device can help resolve issues.
- Turn off your device, wait a few seconds, and then turn it back on.
Delete and Reinstall the App
- If the other troubleshooting tips do not resolve the issue, delete the Illinois app from your device and reinstall it from the App Store or Play Store.
- Deleting the app will not delete your Illinois app data (ignore any prompt that suggests your data will be cleared). Your data in the Illinois app are tied to your NetID and will be restored once you sign in to the newly installed version.
Beta Testing FAQs
Time Commitment and Participation
What is the overall time commitment?
The estimated time commitment is designed to be flexible. You are encouraged to dedicate enough time to submit up to 20 questions per day throughout the week (140 questions max per week).
When will testing take place?
There will be two student beta testing periods:
- Round 1: June 20–July
- Round 2: July 15–26
How flexible are the work times?
There is no hourly or weekly time requirement. You can start and stop (and start again) at any time.
Can I opt out of testing if I change my mind or feel uncomfortable?
Participation is entirely voluntary, and you can opt out at any time for any reason.
Will I receive instructions about the testing process?
Beta testers will receive instructions about the process and guidelines about the types of feedback we are looking for. These materials will be provided for your reference throughout the testing period.
Will there be in-person meet-ups to discuss testing and feedback?
There will be no in-person meet-ups. There will be an optional Zoom discussion during the testing period for those who would like to share experiences and ask questions in a synchronous session.
Are there any requirements for the position?
There are no specific requirements beyond being able to interact with the Illinois Assistant and provide detailed feedback.
What will I receive for participating?
Not only will you get a new entry for your resume but you will also be entered into drawings for prizes ranging from portable speakers to insulated cups. So that we can ensure a diverse group of students can participate, this is not a paid opportunity.
Can I put this on my resume?
We hope you do. You can highlight your contribution to improving an artificial intelligence feature within a university app, which demonstrates your ability to provide detailed feedback and work with emerging technologies. Here’s some sample text for your resume:
Beta tester for the Illinois Assistant in the Illinois app
Participated in beta testing for an artificial intelligence feature in the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s official mobile app, provided detailed feedback and suggestions for improvement, and contributed to the enhancement of performance and user experience
Testing Responsibilities
What are the specific tasks?
You will submit up to 20 questions per day for a maximum of 140 questions per week. Then you will use the feedback prompt to rate the response to each question with a thumbs up or a thumbs down.
If you rate a response with a thumbs down, you will provide feedback on the answer, check all links with the response, and report any incorrect links or dead ends using the comment field.
No specific expertise is required. Simply rate each response according to your personal experience and knowledge.
What kinds of questions should I ask?
We encourage you to draw from your personal experience with the university. You also can ask questions from the perspective of alumni, parents, faculty members, staff members, visitors, or other students. Be sure to follow the guidelines for appropriate content.
What guidelines should I follow when asking questions?
Avoid including or requesting the following kinds of information in your questions:
- Confidential information such as personal names, social security numbers, and any other information considered to be protected
- Internal, sensitive, or high-risk data such as health information, credit card numbers, and passwords
- Information protected by copyright
- Information considered to be intellectual property
- Questions that include inappropriate or harmful content
How should I interact with the Illinois Assistant?
Part of your role is to test the Illinois Assistant’s limitations by asking a variety of questions to identify areas for improvement. You should submit questions relevant to the university and provide thorough feedback on its responses. Your questions should also follow the content guidelines.
Can I ask the Illinois Assistant to clarify an answer?
The Illinois Assistant is not designed for conversation. Each question submitted is answered without reference to previous questions and answers in a session. The context for each answer is only the question just asked.
I have experience in coding and product management. Will I be able to help with development on the Illinois Assistant?
You will not be involved in any development or coding during the testing process. Your primary role is to submit questions, evaluate responses, and provide feedback to improve the Illinois Assistant’s performance.
Could you help me connect with the engineering team behind the Illinois app?
While direct collaboration with the engineering team is not part of this testing opportunity, we appreciate your enthusiasm. If you have specific suggestions or insights, you can include them in your feedback, and they will be reviewed by the technical team.
Prizes
What prizes are available?
You will have the chance to win various prizes according to your level of engagement and quality of feedback. The available prizes include:
- JBL Flip portable speakers
- Apple HomePod mini speakers in various colors
- Belkin BoostCharge chargers
- Joby GripTight tripods
- Yeti Rambler insulated cups
Will everyone get a prize?
The prizes are not guaranteed. Participants will be entered into various drawings, and winners will be selected randomly.
Do the prizes include new phones?
We need to comply with university policy on gift values, which prevents us from offering phones.
Data and Privacy
What will the Illinois Assistant do in the Illinois app?
The Illinois Assistant is designed to help users find information about university services, campus events, academic resources, and other aspects of the campus quickly and easily. The goal is to enhance the user experience by providing instant, accurate information tailored to the needs of students, faculty, staff, alumni, and visitors.
Does the Illinois Assistant use the ChatGPT model or another model?
The Illinois Assistant uses the GPT-4 large language model (LLM). Future versions might include different LLMs or our own pretrained models. This integration helps ensure that the Illinois Assistant provides accurate and relevant responses to user queries and takes advantage of the continuous improvements and updates made to the GPT-4 model.
How is personal information used to train the model?
Personal information is not used to train the model. The Illinois Assistant has been fine-tuned using public information from web pages on the illinois.edu domain, other trusted sites, and data in the Illinois app from events, maps, menus, athletics schedules, and other publicly available information. The tool does not extract data from websites requiring direct user sign-in, such as Banner and myIllini.
Does the Illinois Assistant use any personal data?
The Illinois Assistant is available only to users who sign in to the Illinois app with a NetID and consent to a privacy level of 4 or 5. For users with a privacy level set to 5, answers may be personalized by taking into account information from i-card data such as college, department, and year in school. The Illinois Assistant will not use any personally identifiable information such as a user’s name, phone number, address, or UIN.
How are data from questions and answers stored?
Questions, answers, and feedback are saved and evaluated by university technical staff to enhance the tool’s performance. These records are stored within the Rokwire ecosystem on Amazon Web Services servers and may be retained indefinitely. Information typed into the Illinois Assistant are not deleted when a user selects “Delete My Account,” but questions and feedback are not linked to personally identifiable information.
What safeguards for privacy and appropriate use are in place?
To address potential vulnerabilities, the design of the Illinois Assistant includes several protective measures:
- Restricting access to consenting users with appropriate privacy settings
- Accessing only limited types of user information to generate personalized responses
- Constraining responses to information collected from official University of Illinois sites, trusted partner sites, and information already contained in the Illinois app
- Adding attribution for each response by providing links to campus websites for verification
- Fine-tuning the model to prevent responses to questions with inappropriate or harmful content
- Preventing ongoing conversation
The Illinois Assistant is offered for use with public information only, as defined in our data classification chart. Additional information on protecting privacy with generative artificial intelligence tools is available from the University Privacy and Cybersecurity Group.
What types of questions will the Illinois Assistant not answer?
The Illinois Assistant does not provide answers to questions with inappropriate or harmful content. Here is an incomplete list:
- Racist or discriminatory content: questions that promote racism, discrimination, or bias against any individual or group
- Sexist or offensive content: questions that contain sexist or offensive language targeting any gender or gender identity
- Political or partisan content: questions that seek to promote specific political agendas or target political groups
- Violent or harmful content: questions that encourage violence, harm, or illegal activities
- Sensitive personal information: questions that ask for confidential or personally identifiable information, such as social security numbers, passwords, phone numbers, and so on
- Malicious or harmful instructions: questions seeking guidance on hacking, harmful pranks, or any form of cyberbullying
- Medical or legal advice: questions seeking medical or legal advice—the Illinois Assistant is not a substitute for professional consultation
- Infringing content: questions asking for copyrighted materials, pirated software, or any other form of intellectual property infringement
- Financial or investment advice: questions seeking financial or investment advice—the Illinois Assistant is not a certified financial advisor
- Inappropriate or sexually explicit content: questions containing sexually explicit language, adult content, or any content not suitable for a university environment
By restricting the Illinois Assistant from answering questions within these categories, the University of Illinois ensures that the tool adheres to ethical guidelines and provides a safe and positive experience for all users. We continuously monitor and update the Illinois Assistant’s responses to maintain and enhance appropriateness and accuracy over time.