{"id":453925,"date":"2026-10-02T04:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T04:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/453925\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T04:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T04:00:08","slug":"ut-needs-guidelines-on-using-ai-tools-the-daily-texan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/453925\/","title":{"rendered":"UT needs guidelines on using AI tools \u2013 The Daily Texan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"UT<\/a> <\/p>\n

This past semester, UT officialized the incorporation of AI by giving every student, faculty and staff member on campus access<\/a> to ChatGPT and Claude EDU.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mario Guerra, UT\u2019s associate vice president of AI platforms and innovation, said Enterprise Technology\u2019s<\/a> goal is to provide all students with the same technological resources.<\/p>\n

While this is reasonable, it is unfortunately also an unfinished project. UT solved the aforementioned access problem but left a usage issue for thousands of professors and students to sort out on their own \u2014 one syllabus at a time.<\/p>\n

To be fair, Enterprise Technology<\/a> was not ignoring the issue. The provost\u2019s office currently mandates all syllabi state a clear AI policy regarding how and when AI is permitted. That\u2019s progress, but a syllabus line discussing appropriate AI usage is not nearly the same as UT telling students what responsible use actually looks like. As a result, some students opt out not because AI isn\u2019t useful \u2014 it certainly can be \u2014 but because of the fine line between integrity and dishonesty that no one defines.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c(Students) don\u2019t know when to use (AI) and when not to use it,\u201d Guerra said. \u201cSo they\u2019re choosing not to use it because they don\u2019t want to be accused of cheating.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Guerra said the University has allocated plentiful funds to negotiate campus-wide licenses and an advisory committee.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Additionally, he was clear about where he and his office set the boundaries: promotion of AI outside the classroom yet discretion inside it. He encourages UT professors to control the utilization of ChatGPT and Claude EDU by their students, which is fair. A computer science class and a Jane Austen UGS course should not have the same rules. However, there is a major contrast between professors determining what\u2019s allowed for their discipline and leaving what counts as cheating undefined campus-wide. UT can keep the first without abandoning the second.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This additional standard should indicate AI as a means of augmented support rather than a substitute for original thought.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t encourage AI, but I definitely think it\u2019s acceptable in terms of using it to help enhance my learning and for extra practice or explaining parts of the class that I\u2019m confused about,\u201d neuroscience sophomore Kristin Arreola said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, heavily leaning on AI dulls the skills college is supposed to build. Struggling through a hard problem, sitting with confusion, fixing your own bad draft \u2014 that friction is where learning happens. Outsource enough of it and students risk becoming fluent in prompting and unpracticed in critical thinking<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I take that seriously. But the answer to a real risk is a standard, not silence. Lack of regulation doesn\u2019t stop students from using these tools. It just stops them from using them consistently. The provost office\u2019s own \u201c4D framework<\/a>\u201d \u2014 delegate, describe, discern, diligence \u2014 is a starting answer to that critique if UT enforces it instead of burying it in an optional module.<\/p>\n

UT already requires a policy line in every syllabus, but it should pair it with a campus-wide statement of principle taught at orientation emphasizing that AI is here to support your work, not replace it. Let professors set specifics for their discipline, but don\u2019t leave the philosophy undefined \u2014 because right now, UT\u2019s actions ask students to embrace these tools while its silence causes students to fear them.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez is a psychology and philosophy junior from Houston, Texas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This past semester, UT officialized the incorporation of AI by giving every student, faculty and staff member on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-453925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}