Post

Dr Abeba Birhane
@abeba.blacksky.app

do we know of any universities/higher ed institutions that have explicitly stated resistance/refusal of genai as their official policy

77 reposts251 likes

Shriram Krishnamurthi
@shriram.bsky.social

I don't understand how that would even work. If for instance the university had a computer science department, is the department not meant to teach about it, or use it to explain how it works, …?

ElizabethwithaZ
@elizabethwithaz.bsky.social

We teach about it, but we don't integrate it into instruction. We don't use it as an instructional/pedagogical tool, and we don't have them use the products currently marketed as "AI" in their schoolwork.

Shriram Krishnamurthi
@shriram.bsky.social

At the K-12 level, I can see how to teach "about" it without ever using it. I absolutely do not see how to, nor do I think it would be meaningful, to teach about it without students having any meaningful experience of one. But NOWHERE did I say it was an *instructional/pedagogical* tool. ↵

Shriram Krishnamurthi
@shriram.bsky.social

They are computer science objects, just like compilers, databases, OSes, etc. You can say "I will have a CS curriculum that does not refer to them at all". But *I* don't see how to have a quality university curriculum that doesn't use them, just like you would run and write a compiler or OS. ↵

ElizabethwithaZ
@elizabethwithaz.bsky.social

I wasn't trying to put words into your mouth, just relating our experience and clarifying our policy. I don't consider "AI" to be a "thing", so I'm not sure what you mean by "meaningful experience of one." We teach students about a lot of things without direct interaction with the object of study.

Shriram Krishnamurthi
@shriram.bsky.social

Yeah, there's nothing about "commercial product"? In fact, you can presumably teach a lot better with a non-commercial product since you'd have the weights, etc. (Yes, "open weight" ≠ "not commercial", etc. YKWIM.)

Mark Dingemanse
@markdingemanse.net

Not uni-level & not full refusal but my faculty has officially endorsed a policy that calls for more slow science, sets out the many ways in which GenAI erodes values of research integrity, and advises "to not use it, unless" [you can uphold those values]. osf.io/preprints/os...

👻👃🎃
@waxrepli.ca

My last arch history prof and i chatted about it, we both feel like exams on paper would be a good way to demonstrate Actual Learning but its stymied by the university's policies minimizing paper waste more than anything else.

Pieter T. L. Beck
@ptrbck.bsky.social

My department tried to ban AI-use for BA and MA dissertations, but we were forbidden to forbid AI by the university, as it went against the "AI-positive policy" of uni. We are still explicit about our anti-AI stance, but can't enforce it. Philosophy department in Antwerp also has similar statement.

Iris van Rooij 💭
@irisvanrooij.bsky.social

Solidarity!! From me and 2K others in letter below. Also many students sign. bsky.app/profile/oliv...

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ@olivia.science

Open Letter: Stop the Uncritical Adoption of AI Technologies in Academia It's been a year & people tell me they've changed their mind, feel safer now to sign, etc. So I'm sharing it again for them. We're almost at 2k & anybody from anywhere can add their names. openletter.earth/open-letter-...

Olivier Driessens
@odriessens.bsky.social

At the University of Copenhagen's Faculty of Humanities, there are a few Departments (IKK) / educational programs that have banned or are trying to ban the use of GenAI at exams. Staff at other institutions could apply for individual course exemptions but these seem to be rejected more and more now

Seán Clancy
@seanlclancy.bsky.social

I read an article yesterday that suggested that very few people are paying for LLM products… my sense is that universities are amongst the few institutions that are actually paying big bucks for these products and as a result want a return on their investment.

Shriram Krishnamurthi
@shriram.bsky.social

Anthropic alone is making billions — gone from about 1B in Jan 25 to 20B in March 26. Similar numbers, I think, for OpenAI. That kind of money isn't coming from universities. So I have a feeling your article is misinformed.

The Sane 🇨🇦❄️
@thesane.bsky.social

A lot of Universities use m365 and copilot is a fixed cost add on. My institution pays a yearly fee for all staff and faculty to have a basic copilot license, whether they use it or not. That's a few thousand users, let alone the revenue booked for the 10k's of students.

Shriram Krishnamurthi
@shriram.bsky.social

I see your point. But a lot of that is going into existing contracts. I haven't seen the #s but I'm quite sure that the AI addons are being sold at a big discount (eg, you're probably getting what you'd pay $100 on the market for $20 or $30 added), to suck people into using them. ↵

Seán Clancy
@seanlclancy.bsky.social

This morning alone, I had three different emails from (people in) my institution, offering AI training, particularly in relation to classroom integration… so while there might be pushback, particularly from colleagues in humanities, it seems power in the institutions themselves want to roll out.

Seán Clancy
@seanlclancy.bsky.social

This is the article I saw: kotaku.com/3d-model-mar... I just saw it on Bluesky so I’m not sure how reputable a source it is, and I didn’t click any of the links within, so I don’t know if any of them link to hard data, but maybe some of them might lead you somewhere!

kotaku.comReport Suggests Nearly No One Is Buying AI Generated GoodsA classic conundrum of 'why would I buy something you didn’t make,' platforms like CGTrader has shelves of AI made models collecting dust
David Lundie
@lundieeducation.bsky.social

Universities aren't just paying for LLMs directly, they are also paying indirectly by continuing to pay for outsourcing cloud storage and high performance processing to companies that charge more because their data centres are clogged up with (their own) GenAI.

GraceUnderFiero
@graceunderfiero.bsky.social

I'm seeing hybrid, but not full resistance. Balancing students being able to function on their own while also recognizing this tech exists. www.law.uchicago.edu/news/ai-stra...

law.uchicago.eduRethinking Legal Education in the AI Era | University of Chicago Law SchoolOverviewArtificial Intelligence is already impacting higher education and the legal profession, and the pace of change appears only to be accelerating. It is thus critical for us to use this moment to...
Shriram Krishnamurthi
@shriram.bsky.social

Actually, I'm not aware of very many universities at all that do not have something like a computer science, IT, MIS, or related department, unless it's a university that is explicitly specialized in sub-areas (like the many Indian universities I grew up around, but even they've expanded now).

Sue Cowley
@suecowley.bsky.social

Not a refusal of AI but I saw this so maybe the backlash is beginning. bsky.app/profile/eica...

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social

'A Russell Group university will no longer use ubiquitous anti-cheating tools provided by Turnitin because of concerns that the company might use students’ work to train artificial intelligence.' Maybe time for UK universities to develop and commercialise their own tools?

timeshighereducation.comSouthampton dumps Turnitin over use of students’ work to train AIAcademic integrity giant denies accusations as university declines to renew contract in favour of ‘other options’
jamilahmedai.bsky.social
@jamilahmedai.bsky.social

Right now it feels like top-down pressure everywhere is forcing adoption rather than resistance. Most official policies I've seen just give broad "use responsibly" frameworks instead of taking a firm stance against incorporating it into the learning process.

Dr Abeba Birhane
@abeba.blacksky.app

to be clear refusal/resistance does not refer to teaching genai. ofc we need to teach it like any other subject. my op refers to institutional refusal/resistance to incorporate/use it in the teaching leaning process

Boxo McFoxo
@boxobark.ing

That's not really refusal, that's reaction to alleged student use. More of a surrender than resistance, really. Resistance would be refusing to let this change the coursework.

rui boom ⋰˚☆
@ruiboom.bsky.social

I think you've got those the wrong way round - surrender would be keep setting the coursework, keep marking it, just let chatGPT screw the grading. Resistance is changing process to go around chatGPT so it can't help. but i'm not really here to argue, we can think different things that's ok.

Iris van Rooij 💭
@irisvanrooij.bsky.social

This may be useful (in French) h/t @aeporreca.org bsky.app/profile/atec...

ATelier d'ECOlogie POLitique Toulouse@atecopol.bsky.social

Face à l’IA générative, l’objection de conscience : l'Atécopol lance un manifeste pour l’enseignement supérieur et l’éducation nationale Plus d'infos (texte, lien pour signature, etc. ) ici : atecopol.hypotheses.org/13082

atecopol.hypotheses.orgFace à l’IA générative, l’objection de conscienceManifeste pour l’enseignement supérieur et l’éducation nationale [Vous pouvez signer ce manifeste (version pdf ici) dans ce formulaire. Un document de mise en perspective critique des discours de défe...