MyAI Builder empowers the ASU community to create custom AI experiences

Creative companions, personalized tutors and virtual lab assistants — faculty and staff at Arizona State University (ASU) are exploring the art of what’s possible when it comes to using generative artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the teaching and learning experience. 

“Our approach from the start has been to ensure that our knowledge core – the university’s faculty, researchers and staff – is at the forefront of discovery,” shared Lev Gonick, ASU’s chief information officer. 

For ASU’s approach to AI, visit ai.asu.edu.

This approach guided the university’s recent collaboration with OpenAI, the AI research and deployment company behind ChatGPT. And within a month's time, the collaboration paved the way for over 105 projects to get underway, leveraging ChatGPT Enterprise licenses.  

Recognizing the immense opportunity for generative AI to impact academic, research and work environments, a group of AI specialists, including data scientists and engineers — all part of the university’s AI Acceleration team — have been working to develop a suite of products to advance this work at scale and with the proper safeguards.

MyAI Builder makes building custom AI experiences easy for everyone

In its simplest terms, MyAI Builder is a tool that offers a way to build custom AI experiences – such as generative AI-powered chatbots. A user can develop a custom AI experience in as few as three steps. 

After creating a new project, users are prompted to select their preferred large-language model (LLM). With over 20 LLMs, MyAI Builder offers a range of models from top industry leaders, including OpenAI, Amazon Web Services, Google and Meta. 

The final step is to input specific instructions for AI behavior that tailors the interactions. This can range from adding clear objectives, input and output requirements or delivering tone-specific responses. Additionally, a user can upload various forms of media – including documents and PDFs – to continue refining the interface’s behavior. These instructions guide its response when processing a prompt. 

Users also have the option to customize the front-end experience, which is how their audience will engage with the AI-powered chatbot. This includes assigning a name to their chatbot, incorporating any necessary disclaimer language and providing access permissions to designated users.

After completing this series of steps, the AI-powered chatbot appears in seconds, ready to preview, test and share.

“MyAI Builder is designed to transform the way custom generative AI experiences are developed—making it quick, seamless, and accessible,” said Elizabeth Reilley, AI Acceleration executive director “We're excited to lower the barriers to advanced technologies, enabling our community to harness the full potential of generative AI.”

MyAI Builder offers a variety of features that make the tool applicable to everyday use. Perhaps most importantly, the tool addresses limitations to access AI tools on the open market – this includes concerns for privacy and cost, as well as reducing dependency on technical resources and talent to build, manage and refine these tools. 

One key differentiator for MyAI Builder centers on privacy and security. MyAI Builder enables the development of these custom AI-powered chatbots within ASU’s walled garden. It is important to note that the use of these tools requires FERPA compliance. However, the ability to develop within the approved environment helps to reduce the security risks and expedite the security review process. 

The tool is also developed with cost oversight in mind. Through a system management feature, an administrator can set the highest computational usage — called token throughput  — which often accounts for the highest cost for AI operating at scale. This safeguards against unexpected high bills for teams and the university. 

“This initiative isn't just about providing tools; it's about opening doors and empowering every aspect of the education journey, regardless of technical background,” Reilley continued. 

MyAI Builder is currently available to select teams from across the university for testing and exploration. And work to build these custom AI experiences is already underway.

Introducing Syllabot 

Take for example Syllabot, a unique AI experience built using MyAI Builder. 

Syllabot is an AI-powered chatbot that helps students navigate the syllabus for a specific course. In addition to working with their faculty, students can input questions into Syllabot to help navigate the courses’ schedule, assignment breakdown and more — as outlined in the syllabus. 

The AI Acceleration team is supporting the design of the AI agent, in collaboration with the University Provost and faculty from across the university. Over the spring semester, the AI team joined a class session to understand what information students most frequently gather from their syllabi. The information is being used to train the AI-powered chatbot.

“Syllabot and other generative AI tools like it have enormous potential to help students navigate their educational experiences, as well as help instructors to more efficiently and effectively provide students with the help that they need,” shared Danielle McNamara, a professor of Psychology and executive director of the Learning Engineering Institute. 

McNamara is helping design the AI experience, and invited her students to surface frequently asked questions about a course's syllabus: “The questions that students ask help to not only iteratively improve the system, but also to reveal potential holes in the course syllabus.“

Future plans for MyAI Builder are to onboard more project teams from across ASU to design and develop their own AI experiences. 

Interested in learning more about MyAI Builder? Connect with AI Program Manager Ayat Sweid at asweid@asu.edu.