A split visual showing two academic institutions side by side. On the left, a modern university with glowing, futuristic AI technology such as holographic chatbots and virtual assistants, representing a tech-forward approach. On the right, a traditional liberal arts college where students engage in book discussions and in-person learning, symbolizing a more classical educational model. The split highlights the contrast between these two approaches to AI in education.
Academic Technology

The AI Divide: How Different Schools Are Embracing Technology

Over the past few years, the University of Michigan (U-M) has jumped deep into providing generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools for the entire campus community. I was struck with the difference in tenor between the majority of conversations I’ve had about AI at Swarthmore versus the approach U-M has taken. At Swarthmore, the significant concerns about environmental impacts, potential for bias, ethics of AI training, and focus on teaching fundamental, traditional skills appear to have led the campus as a whole to take a generally cautious approach. At some larger (especially public) schools, concerns over students being left behind and a larger focus on vocational skills along with a desire to take an institutional leadership role have led some universities to invest more heavily in AI tools.

University of Michigan Offerings

The following are available to all U-M faculty, staff, and students:

  • U-M GPT: A custom chat platform powered by ChatGPT, allowing users to engage in conversational AI or generate images.
  • U-M Maizey: An AI tool that can be trained on specific data to serve as a personalized chatbot, tutor, interviewer, or advisor. It allows users to incorporate content from Google Drive or their courses within the learning management system.
  • MiMaizey: A student AI assistant designed to answer common questions about campus life, such as “dining options, class materials, student organizations, or transportation.” The system is trained on campus websites and, with faculty permission, can also pull from course materials.

What do you think?

While many at Swarthmore are beginning to explore the possibilities of AI in their work, the college as a whole remains cautious about fully integrating the technology.

Should Swarthmore continue with this approach, or is there an opportunity for us to embrace AI more widely? Would providing campus-wide AI tools lead to more equatable access to technology and improve our teaching, learning, research, and work or do the drawbacks outweigh the benefits? Get in touch if you have ideas, recommendations, or concerns.

Image created in ChatGPT 4o with the prompt: “provide a visual for ‘The AI Divide: How Different Schools Are Embracing Technology’?“