An AI School for Duke’s Academic Leaders

Person at podium with a screen behind him
Matt Hirschey, associate professor of medicine and director of the Center for Computational Thinking, leads a session in the AI Education Program for Academic Leaders.

The following is a summary of a story that appeared on the website of the Office of the Provost.

Duke University academic leaders are currently participating in a yearlong project to deepen their understanding of AI.

The AI Education Program for Academic Leaders is a project-based initiative for the Provost’s executive leadership team, which includes deans, vice provosts and other senior leaders. The initiative has been offering a series of workshops and training sessions to help participants gain hands-on experience with Duke’s AI tools, along with high level knowledge about the technology and its implications for the university. 

Training sessions have included best practices for prompting and applying AI, the distinction between open-source and proprietary models, emerging reasoning capabilities, and data privacy practices using Duke’s secure systems. 

“Our goal for this program was to give this team of leaders a customized, in-depth learning experience that would equip them with both the technical and conceptual understanding of AI to make strategic decisions about how to deploy it – or not deploy it – in their college, schools and units,” said Provost Alec D. Gallimore. 

The university leaders also developed their own AI projects, identifying a particular application within their administrative sphere and testing whether AI could streamline or improve their workflow. 

By the end of the academic year, the program aims to establish a shared baseline of AI competence among academic leaders, a portfolio of tested AI use cases, and a sustainable culture of innovation through the responsible use of AI.

To learn more about the yearlong program, go to the Office of the Provost website.