Most Flint activities have specific learning objectives in mind. If teachers or students want to ask more general questions and would like for a more general AI assistant, the general AI is a good way to get that support. The perks of having students use this instead of ChatGPT similar tools include:
Access to the best models for free (we use Claude 3.5 Sonnet)
Ability to use math notation, calculation, graphing, code editing, image generation, web search, citations, and whiteboarding.
Data privacy (free tools like ChatGPT feed all conversations back into their training for new models, whereas in Flint no conversations are sent back to model providers like OpenAI)
Administrator oversight (admins at your school can see all the conversations students are having with the general tutor and inappropriate/dangerous messages are flagged by Flint for admin to review)
For a more comprehensive comparison between ChatGPT and Flint, see here. The rest of this page will cover how to access the general chat and view past sessions with it.
Chatting with the general AI
Click on the expansion button on the "Talk to Flint" bar in the bottom right corner
This bar is only visible on the Homepage and Group pages. If you're on an activity overview or session page, you'll have to navigate out of them to see it.
Chat with Flint
You can chat about anything with this general-purpose AI, including current events, random questions, or creating images, rubrics, or worksheets.
If you have distinguished between users (teacher vs student) through an LMS/SIS integration, then this chat will be more helpful to teachers and act more like a tutor to students. This means, with students, Flint will not write essays/responses for them and would guide them on how to solve problems rather than outright giving answers).
Viewing past sessions with the general AI
Owners of the workspace can view all sessions with this chat. Members will be able to view their own past conversations only.
Pop out the chat window using the button in the top bar
Select and view sessions on the left-hand side
This page also enables you to interact with "Talk to Flint" using your full screen.
