AI@AUP: A Campus-Level Initiative

The tools of artificial intelligence are radically transforming many professional sectors and, as an institution of higher education, we embrace technological advancement as an opportunity to foster innovation and collaborative learning. However, even as we equip our students with the skills they need to succeed in a rapidly changing world, we must continue to communicate the value of a liberal arts education. The deep learning, critical thinking, rigorous research, creativity, and intellectual curiosity that characterize liberal arts at AUP are not only values to be protected against technological incursions, but they will be crucial in leading and shaping emergent human-technological relations.   

AI@AUP is a faculty-led initiative that aims to study, assess and reflect upon the use and potential of AI tools across the campus but, most particularly, in the classroom. We will work together to evaluate the ethical concerns raised by AI tools, such as academic integrity, data privacy, bias, and AI’s potential to exacerbate inequities. The values of the liberal arts, and the trust and intensity developed in our classes, where we work face-to-face in small learning communities, provide a laboratory in which we can critically explore these new developments, and help students to understand and ethically to negotiate the AI landscape.  

Dialogue, mentorship and critical inquiry are at the heart of our educational mission, and as we seek to understand and integrate the potential of AI, we will continue to uphold the principles of a rigorous, thoughtful, and ethical education that prepares students not only to navigate a digital world but to question and shape it responsibly. 

Hannah Westley, Provost, AUP