Disclaimer: Chris Rolinson, The Globe’s faculty adviser, is mentioned in this article. His quote is essential to the piece.

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) has sparked debate about its application in classrooms worldwide, and Point Park University still lacks a clear policy on how students should utilize generative AI software.

From Walmart to The New York Times, almost every corporation, organization and college has a concise policy on where they stand when it comes to the use of AI. However, after years of wondering where the university stands on the use of AI, students still have no concise answer.

While researching this topic to see if I could find any resources the school provides on AI, one such article in The Globe was published in 2023 regarding this same issue. The author of the article, Ashtyn Harter, interviewed professor and former School of Communication Chair Chris Rolinson, who expressed that he thought AI could be a great tool in the classroom.

So far this semester, almost all of my professors have mentioned what they expect of us students when using AI in our assignments. Each of them has different views on AI and how we should be using it in their respective classes. This led me to question how students are supposed to keep track of how they should use AI in each class.

Like Rolinson previously mentioned, most of my professors view AI as a tool that students should understand. In many of my classes, we have been watching videos on how AI software is trained and how we can best formulate prompts to generate a response that satisfies our needs.

In my Media Storytelling class, my professor, Tatyana Dumova, Ph.D., showed a segment from “60 Minutes” that examined how AI corporations are exploiting workers in Kenya to train software. I personally thought this story was fascinating, and I was surprised more people did not know about this situation. I found this assignment to be super useful not only because I learned how AI software is trained but also because I now know that this process is not always done ethically.

I have also had the experience of producing a script for a play using various generative AI tools in my CENT101 class, taught by Donald Marinelli, Ph.D, and the assistant director, Chris Gaul. During this project, I had the chance to be creative with AI in ways that I could not even imagine. I learned how to write prompts for different generative AI programs while analyzing their effectiveness in completing the task I assigned them. This project was also enjoyable because I felt like I was playing the role of a producer telling the cast and writers of my play how I wanted the storyline to play out.

While talking about AI throughout all of my classes has been thought-provoking, I still feel as though the administration has been ignoring the pressing issue of the school still not having a policy on AI. Many other students I have talked to about this situation have agreed that something has to be done regarding the confusion surrounding the lack of an AI policy. However, freshman Sophia Smith does not necessarily feel the need for a clear statement from the school regarding an AI policy.

“My high school was very similar to Point Park in having no AI policy,” she said. “I feel like it’s just a habit for me because in high school I wasn’t able to use it.”

While some students might not mind a lack of an official AI policy from the school, the administration should still consider formulating a policy on AI use as these programs become more popular and advanced.

The school does provide a page on its website with tools and resources on how students should cite AI, along with thorough explanations on how generative AI programs work. However, while there are still no signs of an official AI policy being developed anytime soon, students are still left feeling confused about the unspecified restrictions the university applies to this advancing technology.