CU delays ChatGPT access for students

The latest: CU's four campuses were set to roll out ChatGPT Edu to faculty, staff and students by month's end.

• But spokesperson Christopher Sparks told Axios Boulder the university will delay student access until at least Aug. 14, around the start of the fall semester for the system's schools.
• Faculty and staff will have access starting March 31 as originally scheduled.

Between the lines: CU leaders said in a statement that the move was made at the request of the system's Faculty Council.

• Many faculty said the OpenAI agreement was made without enough teacher input and did not provide sufficient support, funding and time to alter classroom plans to accommodate widespread AI use.

What they're saying: "We have heard concerns from faculty about disruption to the learning environment and take Faculty Council concerns seriously," the CU statement read. "We fully endorse the right of faculty to establish and maintain their individual classroom expectations."

Reality check: CU Boulder media studies professor Lori Emerson said the delay "was certainly appreciated" but will be helpful only if CU uses the time to listen to faculty concerns about large language models.

• "If this delay in rolling out CU ChatGPT is just intended to give the university more time to establish a clear set of policies around best use practices, then it does nothing to assuage our concerns," she said.

Friction point: Professors like Emerson have pointed to AI's environmental footprint, bias and hallucinations, and possible harms to student safety, privacy and mental health as areas of concern.

• "No policy document can reflect the way in which these corporate AI products are participating in dismantling the principles of public education that our universities were built on," Emerson said.

The bottom line: The announcement gave no indication that CU was backing away from AI use, but the delay allows professors to end the academic year before having to incorporate student access to ChatGPT into their classroom plans.

• "A delay suggests that the integration of these AI products, particularly into higher education, is inevitable and that we must prepare our students for this world," Emerson said. "But nothing is inevitable."

Disclosure: Axios and OpenAI have a licensing and technology agreement that allows OpenAI to access part of Axios' story archives while helping fund the launch of Axios into multiple local cities and providing some AI tools. Axios has editorial independence.