Paul Alivisatos:
As a next step in the University of Chicago’s overall approach to artificial intelligence (AI), the University is partnering with Anthropic to provide Claude Enterprise for all academics and staff starting in July, and for all students before the fall term. Claude Chat, Cowork, and Code will be made available to the campus community. Spanning the domains of research, education, and operations: these are powerful tools that are being made available to help individuals find ways to improve our pursuit of knowledge, our commitment to teaching students how to think independently, and the ability of our staff to support this work efficiently. Access will be granted to the newest versions of Anthropic’s tools—for those who choose to use them—with improved integration with university resources and tools and more data protection than is available with private accounts.
This is a time of rapid change due to the advent of AI, and the University has been thoughtful in navigating it. Indeed, there is inspiration to be drawn from our faculty’s report on AI and Education that calls on us to be skeptical, ethical, and ambitious when it comes to AI, while remaining grounded in the habits of mind and standards of judgment that define this university. In some cases, it is clear that AI tools can be brought to bear with the desired results. In others, we will do better by retaining our previous approaches or even developing new policies to expressly protect against misuse. In all cases, our highest priority in making these tools available is to center our respect and commitment to each individual human being who is part of this community.