KINGSTON, R.I. — Jan. 21, 2025 — The University of Rhode Island recently hosted an academic summit on artificial intelligence, bringing together educators, researchers, and industry experts to delve into the rapidly evolving role of AI in academia and beyond. The summit, which spanned several engaging sessions, explored the ethical, pedagogical, and technological challenges posed by AI in higher education, while also showcasing practical applications for enhancing teaching, research, and workplace productivity.

The summit, presented by several URI faculty and staff members who are leaders in AI,  provided a comprehensive look at the multifaceted impact of the technology, offering valuable insights and discussions to help the academic community navigate the ethical, educational, and technological challenges ahead. The first step is recognizing that students are using AI, especially to help with research and writing assignments, as are faculty members to help build comprehensive lesson plans and classroom assignments, according to Interim Vice Provost for Academic and Faculty Affairs Sue Adams. Professors need to work with students to make sure it is being used ethically, and students continue to attain necessary skills while being assisted by AI.

“It’s about an instructor being intentional with the way you are asking the questions in class to make sure they are supporting those foundational research skills,” said Adams, who led the summit’s planning. “What are instructors doing in class to facilitate AI as a learning tool? Let’s think about this through a critical lens. Students can ask AI for a synopsis of a research paper and easily get the key points, for example. Professors can then instruct students to go further with the research, asking critical questions about the conclusions AI reached, and whether those answers make sense through their disciplinary lens. When instructors move students through the exercise of guided inquiry, they take the onus to move students toward critical thinking.”

In that way, artificial intelligence is not a replacement for the human element, which is still required to prompt AI systems to produce the desired results, and to interpret those results. It is a time-saving device akin to typing a query into a Google search bar instead of opening a book to search for a particular answer. AI is the next logical step, helping students learn more quickly, and professors plan classes more easily, opening their time for other endeavors. It is also a critical tool for students with disabilities who may struggle to quickly understand some material, putting them in danger of falling behind.

“If a student has dyslexia, for example, making their way through a 10-page research paper is going to be very challenging. AI as an assistive device might be the key to them being able to integrate and truly understand that information,” Adams said. “For teachers, lesson planning using AI is becoming more common, including in K-12 schools. When you use AI as a tool to give you foundational content, you have more time to refine and use your expertise to engage in critical thinking to really perfect the work. When we’re all strapped for time, having more time to do deep thinking is critical. For me, that’s been the beauty of using AI.”

Professors and administrators from URI, Rhode Island College, and the Community College of Rhode Island are working together to draft policies that could be used across all institutions in Rhode Island to give clarity and transparency so students know how they should use AI systems. The URI summit was part of a process of integrating AI ethically and responsibly in academia, a form of “technomoral courage,” according to Northeastern University Professor Vance Ricks, who delivered the summit’s keynote address, describing the delicate balance of intelligent fear and intelligent hope that educators and researchers must strike when integrating AI into their practices.

“It’s very hard to know how AI systems will alter the cultural, sociopolitical, and technological landscapes of education,” Ricks wrote in his presentation summary. “That makes it hard to know what ‘intelligent’ fears and hopes about AI systems would look like or how we can cultivate them. But the stakes matter: Through failures of technomoral courage, we risk perpetuating serious ethical mistakes in how we approach, adopt, or reject AI systems. This is why cultivating technomoral courage is so crucial in guiding AI’s role in academia.”

Multiple break-out sessions gave summit attendees a hands-on look at the use of AI in the classroom and the workplace “in an ethical, useful way,” said URI President Marc Parlange. “We all want students to be as successful as they can be. It’s important for faculty members to be equipped with the knowledge of AI.” Break-out sessions included:

Innovative AI Integration in Education
As AI tools become more prevalent in classrooms, a key session at the summit showcased innovative ways URI faculty members have incorporated AI into their teaching practices. Professors shared their experiences using AI for group activities, individual projects, and even programming assignments, shedding light on how these tools have influenced student engagement and learning outcomes.

The session provided valuable insights into best practices for motivating students to use AI tools effectively, including strategies for fostering critical thinking and ethical AI usage to enhance creativity, streamline processes, and even personalize learning in ways we couldn’t have imagined a decade ago. It’s not about replacing educators but empowering them to create more dynamic and individualized learning experiences.

AI in Action: Impacting Research Across Disciplines
The rapid evolution of AI is reshaping the research landscape across diverse fields, from science and engineering to the humanities and social sciences. The interdisciplinary workshop offered an exploration of AI’s transformative impact on research practices, featuring expert insights and hands-on demonstrations of cutting-edge AI tools, including Claude, Gemini, AlphaFold, Amazon Q, MidJourney, Semantic Scholar, Research Rabbit, Perplexity, and Scite. The session aimed to empower researchers by providing practical insights and fostering a collaborative dialogue on AI’s potential to advance research across disciplines.

Development of Generative AI in Clinical Disciplines
Faculty members learned to leverage generative AI tools to create unfolding clinical cases that simulate real-world patient scenarios. These cases promote critical thinking and clinical reasoning skills while saving faculty valuable time in lesson planning. Attendees learned how to efficiently develop dynamic, evidence-based learning experiences that prepare students to address complex patient care situations and make timely, informed decisions in clinical practice.

Unlocking AI Tools for Workplace Efficiency
The hands-on session explored practical applications of URI-approved AI tools that are ready to use today. From drafting lesson plans or meeting agendas with Microsoft Copilot to generating custom visuals with Adobe Firefly, and streamlining collaboration with Zoom AI Companion, the workshop offered actionable skills to integrate AI into your daily workflows. Attendees learned to craft effective prompts, test AI-powered features, and discover how these tools can save time and enhance creativity.

Exploring Informed, Principled Resistance and Refusal
What if one of the best ways to use AI responsibly is by using it rarely or not using it at all? Why might someone—even a longtime “technology enthusiast”—want to resist or even refuse using AI technologies in their work, learning, and/or teaching? The session looked at some of the reasons for that resistance, and strategies for discussing it with colleagues, students, and supervisors.

Please see https://web.uri.edu/provost/initiatives/ai-at-uri/ for more details about AI at URI.