DEI in AI: University Influence

Executive Summary

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is quickly becoming a part of every industry, every field, and a majority of jobs. Within the next few years, most K-12 schools and colleges will integrate AI into their curricula. This will potentially come through assisting educators with lesson plans, helping students with research assignments, and even creating specialized feedback for each student. The integration of AI into education is not a matter of if but when. As the nation’s schools begin to adopt this relatively new technology, many colleges and universities have already claimed the mantle to steward diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives into AI tools before K-12 schools adopt them.

The goal of these institutions of higher education is to implement DEI ideology into AI before it can be fully integrated into America’s education system. If DEI is embedded in AI before schools adopt these new tools, then DEI becomes institutionalized in the nation’s schools through AI once those tools are implemented. Defending Education has compiled the following list of colleges and universities that are using their platforms and resources to institutionalize DEI — or elements of it — as a core component of AI tools before schools fully adopt them.

These institutions will often use the phrase “algorithmic bias” with “equity” or even in the place of the word equity. Algorithmic bias is associated with the claim that AI systems are typically created by white or Asian men, and as a result, the answers that AI systems may provide to students or educators will be influenced by these specific white and Asian men who created them. In reality, most AI systems are built to provide the most accurate and truthful answers, regardless of anyone’s race or identity. The goal of these colleges and universities is to embed DEI into AI tools to ensure that students receive politicized answers and receive a politicized education in the nation’s classrooms.

This list is not comprehensive. The list represents some of the most notable colleges and universities promoting the adoption of DEI in AI tools.

Key Takeaways

  • The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has an initiative called Responsible AI for Social Empowerment and Education (RAISE) that offers “free, research-based AI curricula designed to help K-12 students understand, question, and create with artificial intelligence.” RAISE’s curricula teaches students about “algorithmic bias” and how this perceived problem is an issue that should be corrected.
  • The University of California, Berkeley has a program known as the “UC Berkeley AI Research Lab (BAIR).” BAIR’s mission is “to drive critical research, innovation and collaboration towards responsible and equitable AI.” BAIR accuses ChatGPT of exacerbating discrimination for using “Standard American English” as the default.
  • Columbia University has a “Social Intervention Group” (SIG) with a project called the “AI for Social Good and Society (AI4SGS) Initiative” with the purpose of advancing “research, education, and training at the intersection of artificial intelligence and social good.” This group has a project called “Human-Centered Benchmarks for Evaluating AI Chatbot Equity.” SIG explains for this project: “To ensure AI chatbots are safe and effective for LGBTQ+ communities, SIG researchers developed a human-driven benchmarking tool to evaluate outputs from popular chatbots.”
  • Virginia State University has a “Center for Responsible AI” (CRAI) initiative that the school claims was created to “ensure AI is woven thoughtfully and equitably into the fabric of education, research, and public life at Virginia State University and throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia.” Areas of focus include “digital equity,” “responsible AI in smart cities, public administration, and law,” and “sustainability and conservation.”
  • Morgan State University has a “Center for Equitable Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Systems” (CEAMLS) with a mission to “facilitate the development, deployment, and verification of socially responsible and equitable artificial intelligence systems.” Through CEAMLS, the university has outreach to young students by hosting “national convenings that challenge the status quo, launched outreach programs that engage K–20 students in the principles of responsible AI, and led collaborative research projects that model how equity and innovation can advance together.” One publication listed from CEAMLS is notably titled “What is the Future of Work in the Generative AI Era? A Marxist and Ricardian Analysis.”

Institutions of Higher Learning

Seattle University has an “AI for Equity” program for “high school students interested in criminal justice and artificial intelligence.” The university claims that this program “teaches students about the intersection of modern technology and criminal justice issues, such as bias and equity.” Students will “evaluate solutions from a technical perspective as well as from a lens of social justice” and “create AI solutions to traditional social problems.”

Howard University has a “Howard AI” initiative for “ethical, transformative artificial intelligence, educating the next generation of AI leaders, accelerating breakthrough research, and deploying responsible technologies that uplift communities, drive operational excellence, and advance our nation’s progress.” The initiative’s goal is to support the “development and implementation of Howard AI across Howard University and harnesses the transformative potential of AI for the betterment of society.” The four pillars of Howard AI are “Ethics and Societal Benefits,” “Research and Innovation,” “Education and Workforce Development,” and “Operational Efficiency.”

Morehouse College has an initiative called “Morehouse Outreach for Responsible AI in Learning (MORAL)” with the goal of extending the college’s “historic mission of moral, ethical, and justice-centered education into the age of artificial intelligence.” The idea is to ensure that “the development and deployment of AI tools in learning environments reflect values of integrity, equity, and social responsibility.” The college intends to promote a “Model Ethical Pedagogy” that will embed “AI ethics and justice frameworks into teaching and learning practices.” Another goal is to create a “teaching framework rooted in Morehouse’s values of moral discernment, social justice, and intellectual leadership, guiding responsible AI integration across disciplines.”

The University of Washington has an initiative called the “Center for Responsibility in AI Systems and Experiences (RAISE)” with the goal to “improve equitable access and use as the world adapts to the proliferation of AI.” Publications listed from RAISE include “Algorithmic Behaviors Across Regions: A Geolocation Audit of YouTube Search for COVID-19 Misinformation Between the United States and South Africa,” “Towards Designing Social Interventions For Online Climate Change Denialism Discussions,” and “Assessing enactment of content regulation policies: A post hoc crowd-sourced audit of election misinformation on YouTube.”

North Carolina Central University has an “Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Research (IAIER)” initiative with the self-described goal to leverage “AI to address complex societal, economic, and technological challenges.” One research initiative from this group is called “AI and Social Equity.” This research project focuses on “the ethical implications of AI, machine learning applications for public benefit, and methods to mitigate bias in fields such as healthcare, education, and criminal justice.” Another research initiative is called “Data-Driven AI for Social Good.” The goal for this project is to “develop AI models that analyze large datasets to inform decision-making in healthcare, education, and public policy” with a “focus on minimizing bias in data and ensuring that AI systems are broadly applicable and useful in real-world settings.”

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