Campus symposium explores Yale’s role in shaping an AI future
In addition to research, Yale is actively integrating AI tools to support student development and promote their effective, ethical use in classrooms. Its secure AI platform, Clarity, for example, provides the university community with powerful tools for content creation, coding, and research while maintaining data protection. Meanwhile, Yale Library and the Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning have introduced a teaching framework to help faculty incorporate AI into their courses and guide students in using the technology responsibly.
In his remarks, Strobel emphasized that these financial and intellectual investments in AI are designed to empower students, faculty, staff, and university leaders to remain at the forefront of the field. The symposium, he noted, also served to highlight how the university is preparing the next generation to use AI to improve the world.
“We are places of knowledge where experts from hundreds of disciplines can explore AI and all of its complexities,” he said. “We can do it individually and also collectively at scale with different avenues and angles. That is unique to higher education. Our focus areas are all-encompassing, ranging from ethics and philosophy to science and technology. The students who are in our classes now are graduating into a world where they must be able to use these tools, and we must be able to prepare them for such a world.”
Organizers say they hope the event will serve as a catalyst for future initiatives, including research partnerships and continued dialogue across disciplines – and that, perhaps next year, they’ll need a bigger event space.
“Yale is an incredible place to be thinking about and working on AI,” Frederick said. “After this symposium, I’m more hopeful than ever that we can harness these technologies for the good of humanity.”
