"The faculty, students, and staff of Colorado College are perfectly situated to wrestle with the implications of generative AI. We are a place where learning, research, innovation, ethics, and dialogue intersect. The experts in our interdisciplinary community can lead conversations and projects that interrogate and explore both the foundations and future of AI. As an institution that strives to foster the ethical creation of knowledge, we can rise to this challenge without trepidation and without acquiescing to the inertia of educational technology. We can ask the hard questions as we explore. Colorado College is made for this challenge and opportunity."

Professor Emily Chan, Dean of the Faculty

As we grapple with the realities and possibilities of generative AI, it is helpful to keep in mind this popular refrain: Today’s AI is the worst you’ll ever use. This neither excuses its known biases and limitations, nor invites us to take a wait and see approach. Rather, it reminds us that we are on the precipice of something big and unknown. And we can shape its future and our own.  

Few at CC can claim to be experts on AI. But we are all explorers of AI. Explorers with expertise in a broad range of disciplines, methodologies, pedagogies, and perspectives that help us connect the dots to between the applications, questions, concerns, and opportunities that accompany AI. We will do this through classroom experimentation, formal and informal conversations, and revisiting our current practices to see how they best prepare our students for tomorrow. 

But our collective exploration must keep the values and priorities of CC ever present. It is through our lens and pillars that we must approach our conversations on AI. For example: Given the inherent biases and ethical concerns of large language models, what does it mean to be an antiracist institution that uses AI? What impacts does AI have on our Sustainable Development Goals when the computing systems running ChatGPT consume a bottle of water while processing a single conversation? What impacts has AI already had on the mental health of our students, especially when it comes to classroom expectations and academic integrity? 

At the same time, approaching such questions from a deficit perspective—we can’t use AI because it doesn’t align with who we are—does not get us very far. Tools such as ChatGPT are only one manifestation of the possibilities of generative AI. It is up to us to decide which tools we will use, how they work, when they are applicable, and where their limits lie as we foster modes of critical inquiry amongst our students. 

We need to continue to be explorers, carrying forward CC’s mission, which states: “Drawing upon the adventurous spirit of the Rocky Mountain West, we challenge students, one course at a time, to develop those habits of intellect and imagination that will prepare them for learning and leadership throughout their lives." 

To this end, what does it mean to use AI adventurously? How might AI develop habits of intellect and imagination? How do we prepare students for the learning and leadership they will experience—with the omnipresence of AI—for the rest of their lives? 

AI isn’t a puzzle to solve. The dots will continue to emerge and be arranged and rearranged. But that is also the inherent nature of liberal arts learning. Contexts shift. We seek to understand through critical inquiry. Together, as always, we can design the preferred future that we want to have.  

Words are great, but actions are greater. Here is what you can do next. 

• Visit the Artificial Intelligence at CC page on the Crown Center website. Here you will find an ongoing list of resources and events to help you further explore. This includes an excellent series of videos put out by the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania, called “Practical AI for Teachers and Students.” 

• Add an AI usage statement to every syllabus. As educators we need to make clear to our students our individual expectations, letting students know how AI may or may not be employed during the course. The Crown website provides resources on crafting such a statement, including some suggestions thoughtfully provided by the student members of the CC Honor Council. 

• Attend and/or lead a Crown Conversation on AI. Throughout the 2023-24 academic year, we will host two conversations each block to help us better understand the specific usage, concerns, and opportunities of AI at CC. Please join us on Tuesday, November 7, at noon (Tutt 411/412) to discuss "AI and the CC Honor Code." The block 4 conversations will provide an introduction to generative AI as well as the ethics of the large language models behind tools such as ChatGPT. 

• Tell us what you are doing with AI. Please share your explorations with AI each other and with the Interim Director of the Crown Center, Ryan Bañagale. If you wish to provide anonymous feedback on how you are working with and/or thinking about AI, you can complete this brief survey. Feedback such as this will help us better provide both resources and future programming.