A statement on Artificial Intelligence

Augustana will embrace AI technology while emphasizing human intelligence and human relationships, creating a balanced ecosystem where technological innovation enhances human capabilities. Our vision for AI integration is anchored to our mission and seeks to maximize positive outcomes while maintaining the core values of our community.

We envision AI utilization that enhances the operations of the College, the strategic plan, and our core educational purpose while preparing all members of our community to thrive in an AI-integrated world.

This vision statement focuses on the use of "AI systems," which we define as "any system or product that leverages machine learning models or algorithms in order to generate predictions, recommendations, ranking, decisions or synthetic linguistic, auditory or visual content."

Foster a culture of transparency and awareness

As an educational institution, our adoption of AI systems will embrace the same standards of honesty, ethics, and transparency that we both expect and value in higher education. We will promote and support AI literacy for our community members.

With a view towards growth and curiosity, we will:

Promote information literacy and understanding of AI systems to help make informed decisions about AI implementation and use
Maintain a healthy skepticism and "trust but verify" approach to AI systems and their outputs
Address fear with facts, seeking clear information about AI capabilities and limitations, as the landscape of AI systems evolves and matures
Be transparent in AI implementations that might negatively impact members of the Augustana community, particularly when decisions are rendered fully or predominantly by an AI system

Ensure ethical and responsible use

We are committed to ensuring that AI systems are deployed responsibly and in alignment with our organizational values.

To ensure that these commitments are realized we will:

Recognize the pervasiveness of bias in machine learning learning models and work to mitigate the impact of that bias
Design and procure AI systems that serve our community equitably by recognizing interconnected impacts of AI across our institution
Enhance accessibility for our community through thoughtful AI implementation that removes barriers to learning and participation

Maintain high standards of implementation

Our adoption of AI will be the result of careful consideration of the manner of implementation, with a focus on ensuring that we maintain our community obligations of privacy, information integrity, and overall fairness.

We will:

Be attentive to all stakeholders throughout the AI integration process, addressing concerns and providing support where necessary
Pursue evolving best practices in AI governance, ethics, and deployment
Rigorously seek to protect data privacy and security throughout all AI implementations
Continuously evaluate and adapt our approach to implementation as AI technologies evolve

Emphasize human intelligence and human relationships

Neither computers nor AI systems are human. We will stay true to our mission and our values by adopting AI systems in ways both respect and develop human intelligence, human judgment and human interactions. For these reasons, AI systems may not be appropriate for certain uses.