University of Alaska delays AI principles partly drafted with Claude after faculty pushback

The University of Alaska Board of Regents has postponed a vote on AI Engaged, a four-page set of principles for AI use across its campuses, until its February meeting, the Anchorage Daily News reports. The University of Alaska Anchorage Faculty Senate also postponed a vote on a resolution to reject and replace it.

Hundreds of faculty oppose the document, in part because its first draft was written by Anthropic's Claude. Ben Shier, the system's chief information technology officer, said he prompted Claude with notes, presentations and feedback from the board, and that only about 20% of the initial draft survived several rounds of human edits over the summer. Several people told the paper the use of AI was discussed internally but not disclosed until last month.

Nearly 200 students and staff signed a petition asking regents to adopt a short statement written by people instead. Joel Potter, an associate philosophy professor at UAA, criticised the document as too pro-AI. University president Matthew Cooper said there is "real strong support for moving, and moving with urgency." Regents asked the AI Coordinating Council to draft campus-specific AI policies in the meantime.