On November 8, 2024, Corey Clark, PhD, of the SMU Guildhall and Department of Computer Science, took the stage at the Technology-Enhanced Immersive Learning (TEIL) Seminar Series with a presentation that invited participants to think beyond traditional AI uses. His talk, titled “Bridging the Gap in AI: From Language Models to Intelligent Collaborators,” attracted an audience of students, educators, and researchers. They gathered to explore how AI, specifically language models, can evolve into true collaborators rather than remaining tools of passive use.