I appreciate the comments made by The Daily Campus editorial board in its Sept. 14 editorial, “UConn’s AI for ImpaCT initiative does more harm than good.” I agree with the editorial board’s concerns regarding the potential for AI to impact critical thinking and human interactions, the need for AI to be used responsibly and the environmental issues surrounding AI data centers. These are precisely the kinds of issues The University of Connecticut and our communities should address.
I want to clarify, however, the aims of AI for ImpaCT. AI for ImpaCT is not a movement to replace human thinking with artificial intelligence. It is not about encouraging students to rely on AI rather than their faculty, their peers or their own intellectual abilities.
Quite the opposite: AI for ImpaCT recognizes that artificial intelligence is here to stay. The university cannot simply opt out of AI. Our responsibility is to prepare students for a world that is being transformed by AI; not just professions, but our society as a whole.
As a university and as a community, we need to understand what these technologies can do, where they fail, when their use is appropriate and when it is not. We also need to understand AI’s ethical, social and environmental consequences.
At UConn, there will be learning experiences where AI can be a valuable tool. There will be others where students need to write, reason, calculate, create, debate and solve problems independently or work in teams to tackle term projects or other assignments. Our faculty will determine how students can best achieve course learning objectives.
Universities cannot embrace new technologies uncritically nor ignore them. We should study them, challenge them, improve them and learn where best to apply them. We should also help students understand what the technologies are, what they do and their implications for their lives during and after UConn. That’s the purpose of AI for ImpaCT.
Pamir Alpay is the Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs at the University of Connecticut.