In an Aug. 28 letter to the Yale community, Yale Provost Scott Strobel said the investment follows a report from the Yale Task Force on Artificial Intelligence and will be allocated to fulfill four main goals: building 450 graphics processing units on a staggered basis to allow researchers to process large data sets and conduct advanced simulations; launching a proprietary generative AI platform called Clarity; recruiting "more than 20" faculty members with an academic focus on AI technology and piloting curriculum review grants; and promoting collaboration and innovation between departments.
A Yale official said the initiatives will be introduced in each department.
"Each of Yale's deans is leading their respective school's vision and field-specific goals for AI. Of course, these visions and goals vary widely by discipline," said Jenny Frederick, Yale's associate provost for academic initiatives in an emailed comment.
Frederick said the implications for students will be providing "new learning opportunities." As examples, she said foreign language students can use artificial intelligence programs to hear and practice the pronunciation of words or students can generate practice questions for exams. She said, however, that Yale's investment represents something larger than giving students new techniques but rather preparing them for a changing world.
"Regardless of degree, discipline, or career objective, they will need to leave Yale with the skills to lead, serve, and work in a world inevitably filled with AI. As future leaders and citizens, they will also need to make informed, ethical decisions about how society engages with AI going forward," she said.
Tolga Kaya, director of the engineering program at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, said Yale's investment is reflective of changes in the academic and career workforce that have already begun but will become more widespread over time. He said simulations conducted through artificial intelligence have been an asset in his research in predicting the potential injurious impacts of playing sports.
"Students are using it in every field coming to us, but now we are getting into the driver's seat because AI is more accessible to everybody," he said.
Kaya said that instead of dissuading the use of AI initiatives to prevent cheating in academic settings, much of the focus in teaching around AI is how to use it ethically. He said AI in an academic setting does not prevent the use of critical learning or thinking but rather encourages it.
"I don't care about the result you get, I'm interested in what prompts you're asking GPT and how you're changing your prompts to get a more accurate result," he said. "Interpreting and critical thinking are even more important now. It helps us to get the initial labor out of the way so we can focus on the thinking process, rather than formatting or how to phrase things."
Frederick said the implementation of AI initiatives at Yale will place a stronger focus on the humanity of students, not less.
"To be clear, we are talking about much more than teaching students how to use AI; as a university we are centering deeply human skills such as asking questions, collaborating with others, and self-knowledge," she said.
Kaya said at Sacred Heart University, he has led an effort to train faculty in all disciplines about AI implementation.
"I think we need to overall adapt to this new way of teaching and new way of learning. It's going to take some time, but the technology is improving so fast," he said. "We've got to catch up."
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