Sept. 14, 2023

Dear URI Faculty and Staff Members,

Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a rapidly evolving technology, with emerging and cascading impacts on every sector, including higher education. The University of Rhode Island supports responsible use and experimentation with AI tools, but acknowledges the myriad of considerations ranging from security and data privacy, to compliance, intellectual property rights, and academic integrity and standards.

In order to explore the impact of generative AI more thoroughly, the Office of the Provost will launch a new Academic Affairs AI Task Force, chaired by Vice Provost Anne Veeger. With representation from faculty, administration and staff, the Academic Affairs AI Task Force will explore and develop a report that identifies the top issues and impacts related to generative AI for the URI academic community. This report will inform future guidelines for use of generative AI tools at URI.

The URI teaching and research communities are also exploring the use of AI this year and offer these opportunities for engagement on this topic:

• The Office for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning (ATL) has developed a series of web resources for faculty who are interested in exploring the use of AI in their courses. They are also hosting an ATL Conversation, “Thinking Through Your Assessment in the Age of AI,” on Wednesday, Oct. 6, from 10 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Register here.

• The College of Business and the Center for Computational Research are kicking off the AI and Data Analytics Fireside Chat series this Friday with the talk,“Text Data and Applications in Business and the Social Sciences,” by Professor Drew Zhang at noon in 354 Memorial Union.

I look forward to updating the community on this important work.

Barbara Wolfe
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs