The initial surge of excitement and fear surrounding generative artificial intelligence (AI) is gradually evolving into a more realistic perspective. While the jury is still out on the actual return on investment and tangible improvements from generative AI, the rapid pace of change is challenging software engineering education and curricula. Educators have had to adapt to the ongoing developments in generative AI to provide a realistic perspective to their students, balancing awareness, healthy skepticism, and curiosity. In a recent SEI webcast, researchers discussed the impact of generative AI on software engineering education. SEI and Carnegie Mellon University experts spoke about the use of generative AI in the curriculum and the classroom, discussed how faculty and students can most effectively use generative AI, and considered concerns about ethics and equity when using these tools. The panelists took questions from the audience and drew on their experience as educators to speak to the critical questions generative AI raises for software engineering education. This blog post features an edited transcript of responses from the original webcast. Some questions and answers have been rearranged and revised for clarity.
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