University of Oxford Grants Students and Faculty Access to AI Platform

What Happened?

According to a statement from the University of Oxford, it has become the first institution of higher learning in the United Kingdom to offer students and faculty free access to an artificial intelligence (AI) program.

The new AI general access program is part of an ongoing five-year partnership between the University of Oxford and OpenAI, which was first made public in March. Professor Anne Trefethen, the university's pro-vice-chancellor for digital, said the new partnership with OpenAI represented an ‘exciting step in our ongoing process of digital transformation.’ 

Why it Matters

As AI programs such as ChatGPT have soared in popularity, the number of users worldwide has skyrocketed, and the programs are especially popular among students. While many educators are concerned about students using an AI program to do their work for them, other scholars have pointed out that trying to stop students from using AI would be like trying to stop them from using computers a generation ago, or before that, typewriters. 

Oxford’s move represents a first in the sense of a major research university acknowledging the obvious, if they can’t stop students from using AI programs, then the best chance colleges have of regulating AI use is by embracing it. Most of the discussion about students using AI has focused on the negative, such as students using AI to write papers for them. But less attention has been paid to the potential benefits.

According to D. Graham Burnett, a professor of the history of science at Princeton University, despite the risks, there are potential benefits to allowing students to use AI programs as part of their higher education experience. For example, some AI programs can provide PhD-level analysis and commentary to student questions, and they can provide one-on-one correspondence with students much longer than most human professors can. 

One student pointed out that they felt that AI programs gave them far more individual attention than they ever received from human teachers or fellow students. Where humans sometimes ignored them or only half-listened to their questions, AI programs could give them their full attention for as long as they wanted it. Of course, the information provided by AI programs isn’t perfect, but neither is the analysis and commentary provided by humans.

How it Affects You

Professor Burnett’s key point was that in many universities today, the consensus seems to be to try to pretend the ongoing revolution in AI isn’t happening by forbidding students from using it. He is probably correct to argue that approach won’t hold for much longer, and Oxford’s move to provide free AI access to students and faculty is probably indicative of a step many other colleges will soon have no choice but to follow.