UA faculty clash over postponed artificial intelligence guidelines

A rift between groups of University of Alaska employees over AI Engaged — a four-page document establishing principles for AI use across UA campuses — fizzled last week after both the UA Board of Regents and University of Alaska Anchorage Faculty Senate postponed votes on AI-related measures.

Hundreds of faculty oppose the document because it was partially written by Anthropic’s Claude AI chatbot.

A group of nearly 200 students and staff — mostly in Anchorage — signed a petition calling on regents to instead adopt a brief statement written by humans.

Alaska college students’ use of generative AI tools to cheat has increased as the tools have become more prevalent since 2022, according to academic integrity statistics provided by the university.

Discussions among faculty about how the university system and individual campuses govern AI use have been ongoing since chatbots were introduced, but different groups at the university have disparate opinions about AI in the classroom.

[University of Alaska regents weigh AI policy as student misuse increases]

“While we have heard many concerns, we also have heard real strong support for moving, and moving with urgency,” said Matthew Cooper, president of the university system, during Friday’s Board of Regents meeting. “It’s a situation where we’re never going to have everyone on the same page with AI.”