As classrooms continue to integrate artificial intelligence tools across campus, Penn faculty spoke to The Daily Pennsylvanian about how they are adopting the technology without undermining the learning process.
Penn first announced its University-wide AI policy in November 2023, which outlined formal guidelines for the use of generative AI and machine learning tools. While the policy provided a general framework for the Penn community, faculty across the University have taken varying approaches to AI use in learning.
“Penn embraces innovations like generative artificial intelligence (‘AI’) models in teaching, learning, research, and the effective stewardship of Penn’s resources,” Penn’s guidelines read. The policy encouraged “transparency” and “accountability,” and instructed students to follow course-set standards when employing AI in the classroom.
In the fall of 2024, Penn launched the Penn AI Council — as part of the University’s 2023 “In Principle and Practice” framework — to provide “strategic input, coordinate cross-disciplinary research, and catalyze new initiatives for Penn’s expanding leadership in AI.”
“The AI Council was created to figure out a strategy to coordinate AI activities across the University,” Perelman School of Medicine professor René Vidal — who serves as co-chair of the council — told the DP.
“We align schools, faculty, donors, and alumni with a small set of talking points that can guide where the investments of the University are going to be in terms of what faculty we recruit or what areas we support to get research grants,” he added.
Vidal clarified that the council does not “impose rules on anyone” or make specific recommendations to faculty and students.
“We really want Penn students to be better prepared for the ‘AI world,’ and we want Penn to be the leader in training both our students and faculty,” Natural Sciences professor Bhuvnesh Jain — also a co-chair of the AI council — said.
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“There are ways that AI can accelerate learning, and there are things about AI that you need to learn in order to do it well for yourself," he continued, arguing instructors should teach “more innovative ways” to approach AI.
Last semester, Jain taught a half-credit pilot course titled “Introduction to AI: Concepts, Applications and Impact.”
“I want students to really get how large language models work and how they can use AI for their own benefit,” Jain said.
The course brought in 10 guest speakers — including venture capitalists, media experts, and Penn professors from several academic disciplines — to “expose students to the full range of expertise at Penn and a sampling of professions” related to AI.
Other Penn faculty members spoke about how they incorporate AI in their classrooms.
“I used my favorite AI … to help me write a textbook for linear algebra,” Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education at the School of Engineering and Applied Science and Math professor Robert Ghrist wrote to the DP. “This was a collaboration between me & the AI… it took me about 120 hours of work and over 55 days to produce.”
Ghrist also creates an AI “virtual course assistant” for every course he teaches. According to Ghrist, these virtual assistants have “the syllabus, text, learning objectives, notation, etc., built in, along with instructions for how to help students study the material.”
When a student accesses one of Ghrist’s course assistants, they are met with four prompts — “help,” “intro,” “think,” and “go.”
When the “intro” prompt is clicked, the algorithm asks the student about their major and field of study and what they would like to learn about or review for Ghrist’s course.
“[I] am spending a lot of effort thinking about how to use AI responsibly and creatively to help students take charge of their learning,” Ghrist wrote.
Other Penn faculty have adopted similar approaches to AI use. In Penn’s Japanese Language Program, for example, instructors use AI to augment instruction and assist with language retention.
“As a language educator, I do not view AI negatively,” Penn professor Megumu Tamura wrote in a statement to the DP. “I find it highly useful for brainstorming, generating ideas, generating visuals, and helping students locate appropriate reading materials more effectively.”
While Tamura expressed optimism toward AI, she added that her view is not completely uncritical.
“My concern is not whether AI works, but what kind of learning it produces,” Tamura wrote. “AI can be a powerful tool, but only if we design its use in ways that preserve the cognitive processes essential for genuine language growth.”
Tamura — alongside Japanese professors Ryo Nakayama, Saki Hirozane, and Nana Kolb — presented a workshop at the Penn Language Center’s 2025 Language Educator Symposium titled “Full Transparency: Connecting Students, Instructors & AI.” The symposium focused on the means to incorporate AI technologies into language instruction.
“We have integrated custom GPTs into our course through an ‘integrated approach’ combining course-specific GPT-driven tasks, task-based learning activities, and gamification elements,” Kolb wrote to the DP.
Kolb described that Japanese language courses use AI in three ways — for interactive speaking and listening practice, interview tasks, and typing and character recognition practice.
“We believe that AI supplements human instruction by providing scalable practice opportunities and personalized feedback,” he added.
Kolb discussed her belief that AI should supplement traditional classroom learning, writing, “successful AI integration requires intentional design that empowers rather than replaces student agency.”
“It’s not difficult for one professor or even the entire computer science department to seize AI and try to do great things, but it is really hard for a university to pull that off,” Jain concluded. “Beginning by starting to work as a team across schools, I think we are in a pretty unique position to do so.”
Senior reporter Jack Guerin contributed reporting.
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Staff reporter José Carlos Serrano contributes to data and enterprise reporting and can be reached at serrano@thedp.com. At Penn, he studies English and political science.
