UC Artificial Intelligence Council launched a systemwide platform Feb. 3 to share AI-related news, guidelines and projects.
The site contains trainings, guides, ethical standards and information about AI research conducted across the UC. The website was designed to keep everyone in the UC up-to-date on AI plans and breakthroughs, according to the UC Tech News website.
The updated platform comes after the UC created previous versions of the website and its initial AI ethical guide in 2021 – the first of its kind to be designed by an American university, according to the UC website. The UC AI Council, a 43-person body tasked with developing approaches to AI policy, spearheaded the creation of the online hub, also according to the UC website.
Alex Bui, the UC AI Council’s co-chair, said in an emailed statement that the site provides an outlet for UC campuses to exchange information, practices and projects about AI as it evolves.
“UC intentionally designed the website to be dynamic and responsive to the fast-changing pace of new AI developments,” Bui said in the emailed statement.
William Allison, chief technology officer at UC Berkeley and a member of the UC AI Council, said while each UC campus may implement aspects of the website differently, the site’s basic tenets remain useful as it can be difficult to share information across the University.
“UCLA is different than UC Merced, is different than Berkeley,” he said. “We all have slightly different approaches on our campuses, but there’s certain things that are foundationally important around AI.”
UCLA has leaned into the usage of AI as a learning tool, becoming the first California university to offer students, faculty and staff free ChatGPT Enterprise accounts.
“UCLA wants to be the campus to recruit the best people in the world in AI,” said Chris Mattmann, UCLA’s chief data and artificial intelligence officer.
[Related:UCLA to become first California university to offer ChatGPT Enterprise accounts]
Mattmann said while the site is a helpful tool for the UC, each campus should individually work toward completing AI inventories, exploring pilots with generative AI and recognizing bias in AI. He added that he believes the site is particularly targeted at an administrative audience whose work concerns the UC AI principles or purchase of AI software.
Allison said the website’s audience also includes students looking to fact-check AI policies, in addition to faculty and staff, journalists and the general public who evaluate the UC as a higher education institution.
He added that the website should make people aware of the responsibilities they have when dealing with AI by providing an ethical precedent.
“If we just said, ‘Nope, we recommend no one at UC is using AI,’ it would march on and nobody would listen to that,” Allison said. “So what we’re trying to do is engage with people to make sure that they are doing it thoughtfully and that they are following those guiding principles.”