Statement on Artificial Intelligence

As a community grounded in making and social responsibility, Pratt is well poised to address the opportunities and challenges presented by emerging artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, starting with the ways we structure and support student work. We are committed to an education focused on disciplinary fluency, one of our Institute Learning Goals, where students are skilled in using tools, techniques, and technologies with respect to relevant professional benchmarks, norms, and guidelines and where they gain the historical and cultural knowledge to act as ethical leaders in their field and beyond.

Generative AI sits among the many tools, techniques, and technologies available to students and professionals—capable of creative use as much as misuse. We recognize the complicated landscape of AI tools, many of which mine and share/sell user data, are trained on biased datasets, and have significant impacts on the environment. At the same time, we also recognize that fluency with AI tools is a growing competency sought by employers and an area of professional development across many industries.

We invite and envision continued conversation on the role of AI in creative fields. Many of these are available through Pratt Talks for future reference, as well as for classroom use.

Pratt Technology makes available a suite of privately-developed AI tools to members of the Pratt community at llm.pratt.edu and ai.pratt.edu (OneKey login required).

For Faculty

We encourage all faculty to reflect on potential uses of AI by students for a range of written, visual, coding, and other assignments. As a first step, we invite faculty to consider: 

• How might course assignments be updated, given widely available AI tools? 
• How might AI be incorporated into assignments and activities as a tool to use, critique, and create with? 
• How might students gain fluency in AI tools while also developing the norms and values that are needed to guide it?

All faculty are also encouraged to consult AI resources available through our Center for Teaching & Learning and the AI Resource Guide provided by Pratt Libraries.

Faculty who are interested in teaching with AI should do so in ways that are consistent with Pratt’s Academic Integrity Policy and its core principles: we do our own work, we are creative, and we give credit where it is due.

For those faculty who wish to restrict or prohibit the use of AI in their classes, please provide written guidance to students in your syllabus in connection with our academic integrity policy.

We also invite continued faculty research around AI, from design and user interfaces to collaborations with computer scientists working at the forefront of AI applications and with scholars outlining harms and acceptable uses of these technologies.

For Students

Every class has a syllabus that describes learning goals and your professor’s expectations for the course. Different uses of AI may or may not be appropriate, depending on what you are expected to learn, and may differ from assignment to assignment and from course to course. Be sure that you understand whether your professor allows use of AI; if you are unclear, ask your instructor about AI tools before using them in your work.

All of your work should be consistent with Pratt’s Academic Integrity Policy and its core principles: we do our own work, we are creative, and we give credit where it is due. Pratt Libraries offers guidelines for citing AI tools appropriately. For additional information, see the Student Guide to Artificial Intelligence developed by Elon University in partnership with the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) — the 7 core principles are a good place to start.

Updated Spring 2025