Dear Roger:

Artificial intelligence (AI) and other educational technology (ed-tech) have become increasingly pervasive in higher education, yet faculty members and other academic workers have been largely excluded from decision-making about how AI and ed-tech are deployed on their campuses. The AAUP formed the ad hoc Committee on Artificial Intelligence and Academic Professions to investigate and report on AI adoption and develop recommendations for researchers, instructors, and librarians to advocate for at US colleges and universities—as well as recommendations for government policies on AI and academic professions. As the committee’s chair, I’m excited to announce the release today of our report Artificial Intelligence and Academic Professions.

Read the full report.

To learn about the experiences and priorities of AAUP members, our committee conducted a survey that received responses from members at nearly two hundred campuses across the country. Respondents who are living the reality of uncritical AI implementation at their institutions raised alarms, for example, about the potential for students’ dependence on AI to result in “failure to learn” and about use of the new technology as “a tool of surveillance by administration.” We drew on survey responses and AAUP-recommended principles to identify five key concerns listed below and addressed in the new report.

1. Improving Professional Development Regarding AI and Technology Harms
2. Implementing Shared Governance Policies to Promote Oversight
3. Improving Working and Learning Conditions
4. Demanding Transparency and the Ability to Opt Out
5. Protecting Faculty Members and Other Academic Workers

The detailed survey findings and recommendations in Artificial Intelligence and Academic Professions can inform strategies for organizing and policymaking related to AI and emerging technologies within higher education and beyond. Faculty members can work to implement these recommendations by incorporating guidelines in faculty handbooks and collective bargaining agreements and by calling for the creation of ed-tech review committees on their campuses. Building on this report and on conversations about the urgent concerns it addresses, AAUP members and allies should work together to secure a meaningful role for faculty members, staff, and students in AI and other ed-tech decisions that affect them.

See also a resource guide provided by the ad hoc Committee on Artificial Intelligence and Academic Professions to help members implement the recommendations of the new report.

In solidarity,

Britt S. Paris
Chair, AAUP ad hoc Committee on AI and Academic Professions