AI Recommendations

Executive Summary

The creative power of generative artificial intelligence (AI) is unprecedented. New capabilities to automate tasks and generate unique content, with both beneficial and harmful outcomes, are being developed with increasing speed. The duty to understand, engage with, and harness generative AI is shared across every discipline and department on campus. Notre Dame’s mission compels us to approach generative AI as an opportunity to innovate and empower humankind while taking into account our responsibility to lead ethically, protect our earthly home, and care for the common good of humanity.

Notre Dame’s Generative AI Task Force (GAIT) was formed in the fall of 2023 as an interdisciplinary working group to explore and assess the potential benefits and risks associated with generative AI tools and make recommendations to University leadership for implementation.

The task force recommends that Notre Dame faculty, students, and staff interaction with generative AI be guided by the principles established by The Rome Call for AI Ethics. These principles are transparency, inclusion, responsibility, impartiality, reliability, security, and privacy. Furthermore, based on our institutional mission, the University should interact with generative AI in ways that live out our educational mission, engage in innovation and experimentation, and care for the common good.

The task force drafted overarching recommendations for campus as well as recommendations for teaching and learning, research and scholarship, and enterprise and administrative.

Recommendations

The committee focused its recommendations on the areas of teaching and learning, research and scholarship, and enterprise and administration, along with two overarching institutional recommendations. These recommendations, despite being categorized by domain, cannot be viewed in isolation. They form an ecosystem, interdependent on each other through shared resources and desired results.

Recommendations Summary

Overarching Recommendations	Timeframe	Coordinating office(s)
Improve AI literacy and skills across the University, preparing students, faculty, and staff to be informed, effective, responsible, and ethical users of AI	Ongoing	OIT, NDR, NDL, and Hesburgh Libraries
Identify the necessary human and financial resources to enable the implementation of recommendations in all three functional areas outlined in this report	Ongoing	OIT, NDR, NDL

Teaching and Learning Recommendations	Timeframe	Coordinating office(s)	Priority (H,M,L)
Develop discipline-specific guidelines and pedagogical best practices within each college and school for using generative AI to achieve learning objectives	Spring/Fall 2024	NDL, colleges, schools	H
Assess AI tools and inform/train faculty and students to use them for teaching and learning	Spring/Fall 2024	NDL, TLT, Hesburgh Libraries	H
Convene cross-disciplinary discussions with students, faculty, and staff on the benefits and risks of generative AI in teaching and learning	Spring/Fall 2024	NDL, Academic Standards, colleges, schools, OIT	M

Research and Scholarship Recommendations	Timeframe	Coordinating office(s)	Priority (H,M,L)
Become the global thought leader in AI for the common good through policy-making and intellectual discourse	Ongoing	NDR, Tech Ethics Ctr	H
Provide expert guidance to researchers for navigating the safe and ethical use of AI	Ongoing	NDR, CRC, CSSR, NFCDS	H
Provide a secure space for AI experimentation and diverse academic explorations	Ongoing	NDR, CRC, and OIT	M

Enterprise and Administrative Recommendations	Timeframe	Coordinating office(s)	Priority (H,M,L)
Establish a process and guidelines for the adoption of AI tools	Spring/Summer 2024	OIT, OGC	H
Routinely review, update, and publish policies and guidance in light of AI developments	Spring/Summer 2024	OIT, OGC	H
Provide access to secure University AI tools that protect ND data	TBD	OIT	M
Establish an AI consulting and acceleration team to enable AI activities	TBD	OIT, CRC	M