What is an AI “Agent”

In the world of artificial intelligence, an “agent” can mean many different things. But the simple definition that I’m using for workshops (including my ISTE poster session) is this: an AI agent is a digital tool that you can use to digitally outsource some of your workload.

One of my favorite types of AI agent is a Custom GPT – in which you “program” ChatGPT to generate a specific type of output, follow a specific protocol, etc. Here are a few of my favorite Custom GPTs I’ve created:

• Canvas SIS Log Decoder

  This one-day project was created in Lovable.dev to help parse through the Canvas SIS report data for a troubleshooting issue.

• Many Endings Story Creator (light)

  This Custom GPT helps you create “choose your own adventure”-style stories, and then exports those stories into a format you can eventually upload into Canva using the “Bulk Create” tool.

• Professor SongMaker

  This custom GPT helps you create high-quality, educational song lyrics that you can use on their own or with other AI-powered music-creation tools. (I recommend Suno!) You must have a ChatGPT account to use this tool.

• Canvas Quiz Builder

  This custom GPT creates or converts quiz questions into a format that can be turned into a qti file by converters like the NYIT Canvas quiz convter. You must have a ChatGPT account to use this tool. If you need to (or want to) use a different AI tool to generate or format your questions,…

• Jeff Silverton

  One of the first GPTs I created, “Jeff Silverton” is intended to for use by children with the ChatGPT audio interface. “Jeff” talks with the user to create an original and creative fictional story, that can eventually be exported in a variety of forms. https://chatgpt.com/g/g-H6KWXaHUP-jeff-silverton-story-wizard