Ohio State to Require AI Training for All Students

Ohio State University will require all students to use artificial intelligence later this year. They will be required to become fluent in combining conventional learning with AI.

University president Walter “Ted” Carter Jr. stated that Ohio State has an opportunity to prepare students for the future workforce. He added that AI is transforming how we live, work, teach, and learn and that every job will be affected by AI.

Ohio State’s provost, Ravi Bellamkonda, said that its AI fluency initiative will embed education about the technology throughout the undergraduate curriculum. He said students will be fluent in their major field of study and the application of AI in that area.

The university said that its program will prioritize the incoming freshman class onward, to make every Ohio State graduate fluent in AI and how it can be responsibly applied to advance their field.

Students will not be allowed to use generative AI to pass off assignments as their own work. Faculty staff will be advised on how to maintain academic integrity.

Steven Brown, an associate professor of philosophy at the university, said that banning AI from classwork is shortsighted and encouraged his students to discuss ethics and philosophy with AI chatbots.

Brown stated that it would be a disaster for students to have no idea how to effectively use one of the most powerful tools and that pedagogy must adapt.

Ohio’s AI in Education Coalition is working to develop a strategy to ensure that the state’s K-12 education system is prepared for the AI revolution.

Then lieutenant governor Jon Husted said last year that an AI toolkit for Ohio’s K-12 school districts would ensure the state is a leader in responding to the challenges and opportunities made possible by artificial intelligence.