Generative Artificial Intelligence Guidance
Tuesday, August 1, 2023
Dear Colleagues,
With the start of fall semester approaching, I’m reaching out to instructors who are looking for guidance on ways to engage with students around the appropriate use of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI). To provide that support, the attached materials have been developed by educational professionals at MSU to offer guidance about generative AI adoption and use. Please refer to these resources as you prepare your syllabi and courses for the coming academic year. They also may be found on iteach.msu.edu, where they will be updated as new information becomes available.
Generative AI offers powerful new tools for us to advance our work and the university’s mission across teaching and research, and we need to explore its uses in ways that align with our values. The coming fall semester will provide us the opportunity to initiate thoughtful conversations across campus to best determine how to engage generative AI in ways that ensure scholarly, equitable, and ethical adoption of this new technology.
Throughout the academic year, I will be reaching out to the units that report to the Office of the Provost and also to other relevant units, such as the Office of Research and Innovation and MSU Information Technology, for guidance on the ethical use of generative AI that is informed by our many and diverse disciplines and functions. Such an inclusive, comprehensive, and wide-ranging effort will obviously take time, with the initial guidance provided by way of this email serving as a starting point for our ongoing discussions.
As we learned over the last years, our community has tremendous capacity to respond quickly and thoughtfully to changes in our educational landscape. I am confident that dynamism will hold true as we explore generative AI and its potential to advance MSU’s mission. I look forward to your engagement in these productive conversations across campus in the coming academic year and beyond.
Sincerely,
Thomas D. Jeitschko, Ph.D. (he/him)
Interim Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs
Professor of Economics