An important AI update

Dear members of the MIT community,

In conversations at MIT now, the subject of artificial intelligence is everywhere. Some voices are hopeful and enthusiastic, some skeptical and concerned. Some people feel all these ways at once. And everyone is struck by the accelerating pace of change.

In January we launched the Committee on AI Use in Teaching, Learning, and Research Training, to assess current use of AI by instructors and students, identify innovations and challenges in teaching and assessment, and propose an AI use policy. 

This spring, the committee will survey the whole community about how AI is being used in education here, and we encourage you to participate. Your candid observations will help the committee arrive at recommendations that really work for the people of MIT.

Important update: Launch of Parley 

While the committee pushes ahead with its assignment and considers the tools, guidelines and infrastructure needed for the future, across MIT the use of AI is an everyday fact of life. In some cases, it’s already crucial to how work gets done.

The way this has unfolded presents two immediate practical problems.

• Security – Having people across the Institute feed MIT data into the whole range of commercially available generative AI systems raises significant data privacy and security concerns.
• Fairness – Because some students can afford personal subscriptions to highly advanced tools and others cannot, even when AI use is allowed in a subject, the current situation can create real unfairness across the student population and even in a given class.

To address both issues, separate from the committee’s work, MIT will shortly roll out Parley – a secure, MIT-hosted platform for AI-assisted learning, research, and administrative tasks. It allows users to interact with multiple generative AI models through a single interface while keeping data private and compliant with MIT’s information security policies. 

Last semester, IS&T ran a Parley pilot; based on its success, everyone in the community (though not our colleagues at Lincoln) will receive access to this suite of tools. You will hear more about it in an upcoming announcement from Vice President for IS&T and CIO Gaspare LoDuca.

We look forward to the committee’s findings and recommendations, and to exploring the AI future together in ways that serve our whole community.

Sincerely,

Anantha Chandrakasan
Provost

Melissa Nobles
Chancellor

Roger Levy
Chair of the Faculty