IBL News | New York
The University of Syracuse, this month, during the forum “AI at Work,” presented its AI platform developed in collaboration with ibl.ai, the parent company of this news service.
At the center is MentorAI, a platform run entirely inside Syracuse’s cloud tenancies.
Andrew Joncas, Leader, Architect, and Technology Evangelist, at Syracuse University, explained, “Creating an AI tutor no longer requires prompt-engineering expertise. Instructors upload a syllabus, slide deck, or even an MP4 lecture; Mentor AI generates an agent that can answer student questions, surface key points, or embed directly in Blackboard.”
Syracuse University owns data and code and pays by the API call rather than per-seat license; therefore, there’s no premium license, and administrators can mix and match models — from OpenAI GPT-4o to Google Gemini or open-source Llama. This approach also allows the university to adopt newer models as they mature.
The same event highlighted the Blackboard AI Design Assistant, where AI suggests quiz items, assignments, and rubrics, as Michael Morrison stressed, the instructor remains in charge.
