New Provost’s Initiative aims to coordinate discussions on AI use, introduces DukeGPT, unlimited ChatGPT-4o
Provost Alec Gallimore announced a new Provost’s Initiative centered around artificial intelligence in a May 23 Duke Today press release, aiming to join a broader conversation about both the opportunities AI presents and the challenges that its development might bring.
The initiative contains four main pillars — Life with AI, Trustworthy and Responsible AI, Sustainability in AI and Advancing Discovery with AI — with each having dedicated advisory groups. These groups are tasked with completing a report by the end of the fall semester to provide an overarching steering committee with recommendations for AI usage at the University.
“At Duke, we are not just consumers of AI. We are architects of AI,” said Yakut Gazi, vice provost for learning innovation and digital education, one of three administrators tapped to lead the new initiative. She added that Duke’s interdisciplinary strength uniquely positions the University to contribute not only to technical developments in AI, but also to exploring its human and environmental impacts.
Along with Gazi, the initiative will be spearheaded by Michael Pencina, vice dean for data science and chief data scientist for Duke Health, and Joseph Salem, the Rita DiGiallonardo Holloway University librarian and vice provost for library affairs.
Although the University already hosts various programs and events centered around AI, Gallimore requested “more coordinated discussion” surrounding AI use, according to Salem.
“The thought is to coordinate efforts a bit, try to do things a little bit more at scale and support at the University at the central level,” Salem said. He said it wasn’t the initiative’s intention to “override” existing University efforts on AI in certain schools or departments, but rather to “supplement [them] and support [them] more widely.”
Initially, this request led to the University’s first AI Summit in April 2024, attended by faculty across disciplines. Out of the summit emerged the initiative’s four primary pillars.
Gazi emphasized that although conversations about AI often center on “generating efficiencies and productivity gains,” this initiative’s pillars are unique since they also focus on sustainability and “humanity.”
Beyond the advisory groups, the initiative will also contain three working groups focused on communication, engagement and administrative functions. These groups will seek to produce concrete deliverables, such as new training tools, to help different departments make use of AI in their work.
In particular, the engagement working group will seek to promote opportunities for community members to learn about AI and participate in discussions. This included a second AI Summit May 30 for the broader Research Triangle community and other training opportunities like AI workshop webinars.
Between the steering committee, advisory groups and working groups, over 60 faculty and staff will contribute to the AI initiative, according to the announcement.
“That's a lot of people talking about AI from a lot of different corners of the University with different levels of familiarity and comfort,” Salem said. “It's easy to minimize the impact of good conversation and thought, but this is what universities do well.”
The University also announced a pilot with OpenAI to provide free unlimited access to ChatGPT-4o for all undergraduates, as well as staff, faculty and professional students in the Nicholas School of the Environment, the Sanford School of Public Policy, Pratt School of Engineering, Fuqua School of Business and Learning Innovation and Lifetime Education, as a part of the Provost’s Initiative. Access began Monday.
The pilot will also bring about DukeGPT, a University-managed platform that has been “integrated with Duke data and best practices” and will become available in early June. DukeGPT is built specifically for the University community and “ensures maximum privacy and robust data protection.”
The AI initiative marks the third Provost’s Initiative announced in the past year and a half, after the creation of a Provost’s Initiative on the Middle East in February 2024 and a Provost’s Initiative on Free Inquiry, Pluralism and Belonging in September 2024.
Salem noted that the increase in Provost’s Initiatives is “driven by the scale of what we're dealing with.”
In becoming a Provost’s Initiative, there is “recognition that [AI] is an important strategic problem” and that the University will grant more resources dedicated to the topic, Gazi said.
“The next few years are going to pass one way or the other and they're going to pass with a lot of changes in AI,” Salem said. “So, the goal … is to make the best use of that time as an institution, leverage what we already do well, but also fill in some of the gaps.”
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Dylan Halper | University News Editor
Dylan Halper is a Trinity first-year and university news editor for the news department.
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