Committee on AI Use in Teaching, Learning, and Research Training

Dear members of the MIT community,

We write to announce the formation and launch of the Ad Hoc Committee on AI Use in Teaching, Learning, and Research Training. Professors Eric Klopfer and Samuel Madden will co-chair.

Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming how we live and work. Here at MIT, our instructors and students are widely using large language models (LLMs) both in and out of the classroom. There is promise that some of these uses may improve learning experiences and outcomes for our students, while at the same time they have raised challenges ranging from academic integrity to assessment validity to ethical and environmental concerns. The committee will help us understand how MIT community members are already using AI and how they can best use it in the future to advance the Institute's educational, research, and innovation mission. Importantly, that overarching mission includes a commitment to preserving the human values crucial to human flourishing.

We have charged the committee to examine and offer recommendations to address both the evolving opportunities and challenges AI presents for teaching, learning, and research training, to position our students to succeed in an AI-powered world. Specifically, the committee will:

• Assess current use of AI by instructors and students.
• Identify innovations in teaching and teaching assessment.  
• Propose an AI use policy.

Given the pace of change, we have also asked that the committee seek out best practices and lessons emerging from other universities. The committee’s recommendations will be made available to inform the work of standing Institute faculty committees dedicated to our curriculum and academic policies, as well as the instructional and research practices in our departments, labs, and centers.

We are grateful to Eric, Sam, and all the members of the committee – faculty, staff, and students from across the Institute who have agreed to undertake this important, timely work.

The committee aims to share its findings by the end of the spring semester. To offer thoughts to the committee or to sign up for updates, please write to ai-teachingandlearning@mit.edu.

A closing note: For those interested in ideas already taking shape across campus at the intersection of AI and education, you may want to sign up for some or all of this upcoming conference: 

Sincerely,

Melissa Nobles
Chancellor

Anantha P. Chandrakasan
Provost

Roger Levy
Chair of the Faculty