Lehigh faculty and staff gathered at Iacocca Hall on January 9 for the inaugural AI@Lehigh Summit.
Sponsored by LTS with support from the Offices of the Provost, Strategic Planning and Initiatives, and Finance and Administration, the summit brought over 150 faculty and staff together to explore the effective and ethical uses of generative AI at Lehigh.
Generative AI, a branch of artificial intelligence that creates new content like text, images, or videos based on patterns it has learned from existing data, has dominated discussions about the future of technology since the public release of tool ChatGPT in late 2022. The AI@Lehigh Summit was conceived to highlight how faculty and staff have adopted Generative AI in their work, while also sharing concerns and questions about the rising presence of AI.
The morning commenced with opening remarks from Greg Reihman, vice provost for Library and Technology Services, Lead for An Organization of the Future Strategic Initiative, and the AI@Lehigh Summit organizer.
“When it comes to AI, there are generally two camps - the enthusiasts and the skeptics,” Reihman said. “I want to underscore that AI@Lehigh should be in neither of those camps. It shouldn’t be a question of AI being everywhere or nowhere. We are in a unique position as an institution, and we have the opportunity to thoughtfully find a middle ground.”
Reihman emphasized that the summit, while thematically about Generative AI, is really about people. Noting that all of the panelists are human beings, not AI agents, he encouraged the attendees to engage with the panelists as exemplars of how to think through the important questions around the effective and ethical use of AI and make decisions about how we will and not use these tools.
The first panel explored the uses of generative AI for professional and administrative work and featured staff from across the university. Each panelist shared the ways that they currently use AI, areas of their work in which they do not use AI, as well as the ways they see AI shaping their field in the future. The panel’s overall sentiments about generative AI were positive, though the question of whether AI would eventually replace university jobs was discussed. The panelists agreed that AI is a tool that, when used in an educated and appropriate fashion, can help to improve the efficacy of rote and administrative work.
During lunch, Nathan Urban, provost & senior vice president for academic affairs, gave the keynote address in which he presented an optimistic vision for the future of generative AI in higher education.
“Generative AI is important for us as individuals, as a university, and as a society,” Urban said. “‘Getting it right’ is critical for higher education and for Lehigh, and is perhaps more important for higher ed than any other industry.”
Provost Urban also addressed the fear that had been raised in that morning’s panel regarding the loss of jobs to AI by explaining that generative AI can enhance what our students can do, thereby giving them an advantage.
“Our students won’t lose their job to AI,” he said. “But rather to someone who knows how to use AI better than them.”
To explore how Lehigh can better use generative AI to advance its mission, Provost Urban announced the creation of a Generative AI Advisory Group that would report to him and Chris Cook, interim vice president for finance and administration. This group will consist of Bill Gaudelli, senior vice provost of educational innovation; Haiyan Jia, associate professor, Department of Journalism and Communication, Cognitive Science Program, and Digital Media Lab; Ilena Key, chief technology officer; Luis Nunes Vicente, chair of Industrial and Systems Engineering; Greg Reihman, vice provost for Library and Technology Services; and Dan Warner, vice provost for Admissions and Financial Aid.
Summit attendees spent the afternoon engaging with the second panel which explored the effective and ethical use of AI in Teaching, Learning, and Research at Lehigh. Faculty and staff from across the university highlighted the ways in which they were using AI to enhance their research and teaching, but did not shy away from potential concerns. Several panelists discussed their concerns regarding equity in representation for AI results, as well as the environmental impact of optimizing AI results.
After each panel, participants had conversations at their tables about use cases they were considering, along with questions and concerns.
Greg Reihman concluded the day by underscoring the power of discussing our thoughts and fears regarding these topics.
“As an institution it behooves us to be intentional and deliberate as we have conversations about the implementation of generative AI at Lehigh” he said. “We need to be aware of the risks and adopt these tools wisely - with courage and caution, skepticism and excitement. We have the opportunity to turn this into something that is reasonable and real, that will help us to become good scholars, good teachers, and good humans.”
AI@Lehigh Resources
To view the recordings and slides from this event, visit the AI@Lehigh Summit page.
For an overview of Lehigh’s approach to AI, including policies, guidance, and support, please visit ai.lehigh.edu.
Join LTS for Generative AI office hours held via Zoom on the last Friday of every month through April.
For past and upcoming LTS seminars and workshops, including seven seminars on GenAI, visit LTS Seminars.
To continue this conversation with visiting experts in the field, please attend one of our upcoming lectures below.
Upcoming Technology & AI Events:
Jessica Johnson | Humanities Center, the English Department, and Friends of the Lehigh University Libraries | Topic: Keywords for Black Louisiana: Witnessing Black Life & Community
February 6, 2025 | STEPS 280 | Lecture 4:30 - 5:30pm
In 2020, a group of scholars embarked on a journey to open a door into the lives of enslaved Africans on the Gulf Coast. Five years later, Keywords for Black Louisiana, part of the award-winning LifexCode: Digital Humanities Against Enclosure ecosystem, has created a blueprint for mapping Black life across time and space. This talk explores the past of Black resistance and the present role histories of slavery play in the fight for a just and humane world. Event and speaker details.
Ruha Benjamin | Radical Love Conference Keynote Speaker | Topic: The Future of Technology
February 14, 2025 - Wood Dining Room - Reception 5pm | Lecture 6pm
Join Dr. Ruha Benjamin, Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University and MacArthur Genius Fellow, for a community conversation about reimagining the future of technology. For more information, email marconinst@lehigh.edu and register here today!
Kevin Roose | Center for Ethics Hagerman Lecture | Topic: Role of Social Media & AI in Society
April 10, 2025 - Packard 101 - Reception 4:45pm | Lecture 5:30pm
Kevin Roose, author and technology columnist for the NY Times will present this year’s Hagerman Lecture on the Role of Social Media & AI in Society. For more information, email ethicscenter@lehigh.edu and register here today!
Meredith Broussard |Friends of the Lehigh University Libraries & Humanities Center | “More than a Glitch”
April 17, 2025 - Location TBD
The Humanities Center and the Friends of the Lehigh University Libraries will co-host Meredith Broussard from NYU. Dr. Broussard is a data scientist and one of the few Black female researchers in artificial intelligence. In her new book, More than a Glitch, she synthesizes concepts from computer science and sociology to explore a range of examples: from facial recognition technology trained only to recognize lighter skin tones, to mortgage-approval algorithms that encourage discriminatory lending, to the dangerous feedback loops that arise when medical diagnostic algorithms are trained on insufficiently diverse data. Watch for details in April.
Library and Technology Services
Story by: Jessica Jackson
Photography by: Neda Najafiabdolkarimi
