How Do You Solve a Problem Like Claude?
Recently, while scrolling around the internet as is a habit of mine, I came across some information about Trinity that seemed quite wrong. Upon further probing, I learned the source of the misinformation: “Claude did it.” Claude? I had no idea who Claude was until that moment when I learned that Claude is the name of the (fill in the blanks: agent, chatbot, large language model, a.k.a. artificial intelligence) created by the company Anthropic.
(Ok, Claude didn’t really do it on its own, it simply facilitated writing something about Trinity by vacuuming data from the internet and producing a misleading statement; the human element failed to proofread before posting.)
Welcome to the new era of the Technology Revolution! Artificial intelligence fills the news these days, and inescapably fills our screens — Google’s Gemini, Microsoft’s Co-Pilot, the original ChatGPT, Claude, Meta’s Muse, you name it, the AI space is already crowded and we’ve only just met these strange new phenomena.
Upon learning that AI is already in use around campus (yes, I know about student use, more on that in a minute) for administrative purposes, I did a quick survey of faculty and staff this summer (AI Survey Summer 26) and was startled to learn this: a fairly large number of faculty and staff are already using various AI tools for everything from organizing routine tasks to developing course syllabi to writing emails to doing research, and more. And, yet, our faculty also are deeply concerned about student use of AI tools to write papers or otherwise do what some might call “cheating” but others say is simply helping out with the assignment. As I delved into the topic, I learned that this is a nationwide struggle not only in higher education but throughout K-12 education as well.
So, how do we solve a problem like Claude? I absolutely want Trinity — our students, faculty and staff — to be fully conversant with all of the latest developments in technology, especially since many of the professions our students will enter (e.g., healthcare, business, education) already use AI tools. At the same time, I need to know how Trinity as a learning community with a very special mission makes sure that we keep AI under control and in perspective, not allowing AI to take over our own thinking and writing, research and teaching processes.
As I mused on all of this, Pope Leo XIV issued the encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, a brilliant exposition of the Church’s social justice teachings and how those teachings should inform our work with Artificial Intelligence.
As I spoke with faculty and staff colleagues about the challenges we face in the AI age, we agreed that this is a topic that needs a large and ongoing community conversation. So, we have done several things that are in the early stages of organization, and as we move through the year we will have numerous opportunities to engage on these issues:
1) We have formed a faculty/staff Task Force on Artificial Intelligence (Task Force on AI Organization) with project teams organized around topics including the use of AI in curricula and pedagogy, AI in administrative work, AI in faculty research, recommended AI platforms, and further development of the policy statement on Academic Integrity and AI. More than 50 faculty and staff have volunteered to serve on this Task Force, a great showing of institutional engagement! Most important, this group will formulate a statement on Trinity’s philosophy about Artificial Intelligence rooted in Trinity’s mission and values.
2) We will engage students in this discussion first through a survey that Dr. Rachel Poirier is developing with input from the Task Force. We will share the results with the campus community, and those results will inform our work going forward.
3) I will soon be calling our first Campus Conversations of the year and that will include discussion of AI and the work of our Task Force.
4) At Alumnae Reunion on Friday, October 23, we will have a panel discussion about Magnifica Humanitas with our campus scholars Dr. Jeannine Marino, Dr. Steven Gable, and Dr, Stephen Thorne, and special guest Dr. Stephen Schneck who will also speak about religious liberty in an earlier program. Students will also be part of these panels, which are also part of our America250 program.
5) We will invite speakers to campus throughout the year to lead professional development programming for faculty and staff on topics related to AI, and we will be happy to include students in such programming as well.
Why should Trinity faculty, staff and students care about any of this?
First and most important, AI is already reshaping all of education — how students learn, how faculty teach, how writing and research are changing with AI tools. Knowing how to use AI — and knowing how to avoid its dangers — should be central to our work as educators and students.
Second, as a Catholic college, we should heed the Pope’s call to be sure that our embrace of technology does not damage our humanity, and that is not something we can take for granted. We must always act to reinforce the fundamental principle of social justice to uphold the life and dignity of every human person.
And that leads to my third concern: if you look at the photo below — all the tech titans gathered at the White House last week — you may notice that there are only two women and no persons of color at that powerful table. While those powerful men signed a pledge saying that they would regulate themselves in the development of AI, we know from long experience that the world simply cannot work that way. When women and people of different races, ethnicities, economic strata and life experiences are excluded, the resulting products and processes will not serve all the people well. We need our Trinity students, alumnae and alumni at those tables as far as possible — and to get there, we must study and learn everything we can about this new technological revolution so that we can join in, participate, influence and guide its development for the good of all people, not just for the powerful few.
I will share much more on this initiative in the days to come, and I welcome your comments and ideas on the best ways for Trinity to learn about, engage with and have community impact on AI in the future.
