Cornell Report on Generative AI for Education
The Provost stood up a committee in Spring 2023 to develop guidelines for the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) technologies, such as ChatGPT, in teaching at Cornell. The committee’s report is now available. Faculty can choose to prohibit, to allow with attribution, or to encourage GAI use. Appendices of the report contextualize GAI in diverse disciplines, including mathematics, physical sciences, and engineering; and computer programming.
Further highlights include:
- Courses, and even individual assignments, should explicitly identify expectations regarding GAI use and justify those expectations based on well-defined learning outcomes.
- Students should be taught why using GAI in prohibited ways is not just unethical but also counterproductive to learning. Faculty are encouraged to engage in ongoing conversations about the importance of basic Academic Integrity principles, which still apply regardless of GAI tools.
- The committee currently discourages the use of automatic detection algorithms for Academic Integrity violations using GAI, given their unreliability and current inability to provide definitive evidence of violations.