ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Teachers are finding themselves trying to work around artificial intelligence as it becomes more prominent everywhere, including classrooms.

However, staff at UNM aren’t just working around it – they’re embracing and encouraging it.

“Every single time a new technology comes into existence, there’s always resistance. There’s always a fear of how it’s going to impact the way of life in a way. But can you imagine not using it? The internet or computers in the classroom now is the same thing. It is happening faster. So that’s why we need to learn even more,” said Dr. Leo Lo, the dean of library sciences at UNM.

Not all universities are on board just yet.

“One of the major concerns is how to properly document this as a source and how to give credit where credit is due,” said Steven Atlas, the URI Associate Professor.

Among the concerns – will ChatGPT prevent students from using critical thinking skills or will it even help them cheat?

“Depends on how you use it. So AI, if a student asks the AI to do everything for them, they’re not thinking, they’re not learning. But for example, for you to be able to use AI, you need to be able to communicate with it. This is a new thing called prompt engineering,” Dr. Lo said.

There are no official policies regarding AI at UNM. Dr. Lo says they’re in the training stage and experimenting with ways they can implement the technology on-campus.

They’re already seeing success with what would be mundane tasks in the library.

“I asked my librarians see how we can use this to help you catalog for example, how we can use it to help students to find information.”

With different forms of AI making its way into almost every industry, Dr. Lo says we need to keep up with the times.

“It’s one of our university’s missions is to prepare our students to be able to, get jobs to do well in life in their professional lives and help the state to have a skilled workforce. That’s why it’s even more critical for us to begin teaching our students to use this tool,” Dr. Lo said.