Few would dispute that artificial intelligence has been — and will continue to be — a powerful force for change in the world.
The question of what that might look like — especially in the realm of higher education — took center stage during “AI Week,” a student-initiated campus conversation that began Feb. 11 with a faculty panel about the role of AI at the College. The series of five events concludes Friday, Feb. 21 with a faculty-only roundtable.
Andrew Pilat ’25, Student Council vice president for academic affairs who conceived of the idea last year, said he has been eager to have a campus-wide conversation about AI. He and a committee of students have been working to put together this month’s slate of events in partnership with the Office of the Provost and the Center for Innovative Pedagogy.
“AI, in a lot of ways, is a tool that (has the potential to) disrupt all disciplines across campus, and so it’s important to think about how we grapple with this technology,” Pilat said. “I set out to have a dedicated set of events that would explore the role of AI at Kenyon, thinking of it in both a positive and in more dangerous lights. What good will it do for education, and what might it detract from?”
It’s important to think about when the use of AI may be appropriate and when it’s antithetical to a Kenyon education, as well as how students can be prepared for jobs that are increasingly making use of AI, he said.
“I think that my generation views this as a tool that will not be going away, and instead of something that we should completely disregard, it’s something that we should learn how to use and get comfortable with it,” Pilat said.
Topics during AI Week have included practical and creative uses of AI and a discussion led by Christopher Levesque, assistant professor of law and society and sociology, on “Algorithmic Bias and Social Surveillance.”
Professor of Mathematics Noah Aydin, who participated in last week’s faculty panel, said that there are many important questions at hand, including the limitations of AI, practical ways to use it in teaching as part of a liberal arts education, and the damage that can result from inappropriate use. AI Week, he continued, has been a good way to get the conversation started.
“It is not realistic to assume that students, employers and others will not be using this powerful tool, and we cannot ignore its impact on education, particularly on liberal arts education,” he said.
Joe Murphy, director of the Center for Innovative Pedagogy (CIP), led an interactive workshop Monday on AI tools and will host Friday’s faculty-only talk. He said his goals include creating chances for conversation and offering hands-on exposure to tools that continue to evolve.
“I am hoping that faculty members will have some opportunities to interact with some of these tools, maybe with some tools that they aren’t expecting to use,” he said.
In addition, CIP has collected 25 examples of syllabus language that faculty used last semester to address the use of AI in their courses, which he hopes will be useful to their colleagues. Currently, it is up to individual faculty to decide if they want to have a policy regarding AI and what it might be.
Katherine Elkins, professor of comparative literature and humanities in the Integrated Program in Humane Studies, joined Aydin and other faculty members in the Feb. 11 discussion about the use of AI on campus. In 2016, she co-developed the first human-centered AI curriculum and co-founded Kenyon’s AI Lab.
She said after the session that she was pleased that students initiated the current dialogue on the topic.
"I am very glad that students, led by Andrew Pilat, are spearheading this initiative to engage in dialogue about AI,” she said.
As for Pilat, who is double majoring in molecular biology and mathematics, his hope is that AI Week’s positive reception is only the beginning.
“I’m hoping that a conversation has started and that we’re realistically thinking of ways that we can continue engaging with this (technology).”