As artificial intelligence becomes more infused in higher education, some worry it will replace jobs, while others see it as a tool to make work easier.
These concerns and hopes were explored by faculty, staff, students, industry leaders and others at the second annual Michigan State University Ethics AI Summit on May 5 at the STEM Teaching and Learning Facility. More than 300 virtual and in-person attendees examined AI’s promise and its challenges, underscoring MSU’s role in preparing students for a future where AI is increasingly part of daily work and research.
“We can be a leader in teaching students to use AI in a way that has you asking the most important research questions to drive the next innovation,” said MSU President Kevin M. Guskiewicz, Ph.D., during a summit leadership panel. “We need to teach them how to do that, how to use it ethically and to set them up to sustain their curiosity and ask those questions.”
Beyond preparing students to use AI tools for future careers that could be affected by the emerging technology, the summit also considered AI a broader catalyst for cultural change in higher education.
Attendees shared uncertainty, excitement and skepticism about AI, while calling for adaptable skills, experiential learning and effective governance.
“AI is not just a technical conversation,” said Ana Lesage, assistant director of the MSU Ethics Institute. “It’s a human conversation, it’s an educational conversation, a creative conversation and an ethical conversation. Whether you are deeply engaged in AI work already, cautiously exploring its possibilities, or simply curious about how it may impact your work, your perspective matters here.”
Conversations, common ground and human connections
Distrust in AI is already being sown among faculty, students and surrounding communities, according to Gillian Macdonald, director of the Lab for the Education and Advancement in Digital Research in the College of Social Science.
“Educators, technologists, policymakers and the community organizations around us are opposing AI because they think it’s harmful, extractive, flawed, as well as environmentally damaging or socially unjust,” she said.
Macdonald said the rapid growth of information, paired with social platforms and generative AI, has led to “information decentralization,” where engagement is valued over accuracy, posing challenges in higher education.
Madelyn Rose Sanfilippo, assistant professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s School of Information Sciences and keynote speaker at the AI Summit, said her research found concern across higher education around AI bias and hallucinations, accuracy, privacy and academic integrity.
“Having conversations like this can help to bridge some of that and to find aspects of common ground,” she said.
As higher education becomes more complex with the introduction of AI, there’s a growing need to rethink how education happens, not solely whether AI should be used.
Center for Teaching and Learning Innovation Director Jeremy Van Hof advocated for a shift from knowledge transfer to knowledge application and experiential learning, emphasizing approaches that allow students to apply knowledge, reflect on their thinking and engage in exploration.
“Moving from transfer to application ensures that personal growth and academic rigor remain at the center of the Spartan experience,” he said. “So, let’s ensure that our legacy at this university is not defined by the speed of an algorithm, but by the depth of our human connection.”
Harnessing AI’s potential requires good policy
In addition to deliberate integration, conversations and a change in teaching, AI Summit speakers said thoughtful governance will be equally critical.
Good AI policy should support “human flourishing,” said Johannes Bauer, Quello Center director and Quello chair for media and information policy. But, he said, creating good policy is hard.
Institutions like MSU should adopt agile governance, he said, evaluating what works and allowing both AI use and skepticism to coexist.
“AI, because it’s a general-purpose technology, has positive and negative ripple effects across society and the economy, and it behooves us as a university to not lose sight of those issues,” he said. “AI offers many opportunities, but it also has environmental effects, changes labor markets and affects inequality. If you just focus on teaching and how we can use it effectively in research, and do not consider those broader impacts, we will not fulfill our mission to advance human flourishing.”
Current MSU AI guidance requires responsible, ethical and creative use of AI among faculty and staff, emphasizing human discretion. The Ethics Institute continues to provide evolving guidance and encourages collaboration.
Thinking about the future of AI
As institutions build guardrails around AI use, speakers said they also must prepare students to adapt and thrive in careers impacted by AI.
Guskiewicz, having just participated in spring commencement ceremonies for more than 10,000 Spartan graduates, said students leaving MSU are starting careers in 2026 and will retire in 2076, a span where it’s impossible to predict what new jobs and careers will exist.
“One of our roles as a leading global public research university is to be thinking ahead,” he said. “The technical skills are really important, and we’ve got to be thinking about that as they relate to AI machine learning. But I think we have a responsibility to think beyond those technical skills. It takes much more than that to prepare the workforce for the needs of today and tomorrow and in the future.”
MSU needs to think about teaching students skill sets that allow them to adapt to the changing AI technologies, Guskiewicz said. Speakers stressed a core piece of that is strengthening human judgement, learning how to evaluate information and using technology as a complement to problem-solving, not a replacement.
Speakers agreed that AI governance and use are evolving along with the constantly evolving technology itself. MSU and the Ethics Institute invite faculty, staff and student feedback on existing AI guidance to use toward future iterations of guidance.
“I think we have an opportunity to augment our investment in our own intellectual capacity,” said Shashank Priya, vice president for research and innovation. “We have excellent students and an outstanding group of faculty that probably should be brought to the table to help us navigate this chapter of AI in so many different ways.”
Learn more about AI guidance and resources as well as the AI Summit online. Recordings of select event sessions are available on the AI Summit website.
