The University of Washington announced today a transformative $10 million gift from Microsoft pioneer Charles Simonyi and his wife, Lisa Simonyi, to launch AI@UW, a comprehensive campus-wide initiative designed to position the university as a leader in the responsible and effective integration of artificial intelligence into classroom instruction and academic research.
The initiative establishes a new Vice Provost for Artificial Intelligence position, the first of its kind at a major research university, with Professor Noah Smith of the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering selected to serve in the inaugural role. The creation of this senior leadership position reflects the university’s recognition that artificial intelligence represents not merely another technological tool but a fundamental shift in how teaching, learning, and research are conducted that requires dedicated strategic leadership.
Smith indicated there exists substantial expertise around intelligent AI adoption distributed across the UW campus, “and what I really want to do is connect all of that, bring it together, map out what people already know and are doing, cast the light on it so we can all learn from each other more effectively and accelerate it.” His vision emphasises coordination and knowledge-sharing amongst faculty, researchers, and administrators who are independently experimenting with AI applications but lack mechanisms for sharing insights and best practices.
Faculty across disciplines are eager, perhaps even desperate, for institutional support and guidance navigating AI’s rapidly expanding role in education, according to Smith.
“If you ask faculty what’s the one question on their minds right now, it’s: ‘My students are using AI. What now? What am I supposed to do? How do we respond to this?'” Smith stated, capturing the anxiety and uncertainty many professors feel as they watch students incorporate AI tools into their academic work whilst lacking clear institutional policies or pedagogical frameworks for appropriate use.
The UW’s response, as articulated by Smith, involves establishing parameters where AI assists students by answering questions, generating study materials, or providing feedback, but does not complete assignments or produce work that students submit as their own. On the faculty side, AI can aid in creating assessment tools, generating practice problems, providing personalised feedback at scale, and identifying students who may be struggling, but should not replace the human judgment and expertise that define quality teaching.
Smith is advocating for open conversations and transparency around AI use, helping students understand where AI complements their academic journey by enhancing learning efficiency and deepening understanding, versus where it undermines education by doing cognitive work students need to perform themselves to develop skills and knowledge.
“You don’t go to university,” he stated plainly, “if you don’t actually want to learn.” This observation cuts to the heart of concerns about AI in education, where the technology’s ability to generate essays, solve problems, and answer questions creates temptations for students to shortcut the learning process, ultimately cheating themselves of the education they ostensibly seek.
A key component of AI@UW is its grant programme, SEED-AI, which stands for Supporting Educational Excellence and Discovery. The competitive grants will provide funding to faculty across the university who propose innovative, exploratory approaches for integrating AI into their courses in ways that could be scaled and adopted widely. The call for grant proposals should be issued within the next few weeks, with recipients expected to be announced later in the academic year.
Smith highlighted three additional focus areas that will structure AI@UW’s work beyond the grants programme:
Governance and policy involves creating a governance committee charged with establishing infrastructure for setting AI use policies that facilitate innovation in the classroom whilst protecting academic integrity. This committee will need to balance competing interests including faculty autonomy, student learning outcomes, equity concerns around differential AI access, and institutional liability for how AI is used in university settings.
AI literacy courses will be developed for all undergraduates, addressing AI capabilities, limitations, and implications from different disciplinary perspectives so students “have an understanding of AI that is not grounded in fear or grounded in fantasy and hype,” Smith stated. These courses recognise that AI literacy has become essential general education, comparable to writing, quantitative reasoning, or digital literacy, that students need regardless of their majors or career paths.
An expert network will connect AI specialists within the UW who can assist faculty working on research and education projects requiring customised AI tools. Many faculty have project-specific needs, such as analysing large datasets, generating synthetic training data, or building domain-specific AI applications, but lack the technical expertise to implement solutions themselves. The expert network provides consultation and development support, removing technical barriers that might otherwise prevent innovative applications.
UW President Robert Jones indicated the initiative and new vice provost role will help the university maintain its “strategic advantage” as a leader in AI research and application.
“We need somebody that wakes up each and every day that thinks about AI across the three parts of our mission: our teaching, our research and our innovation agenda,” Jones stated. “So that’s the value proposition.” His comment reflects recognition that AI pervades all aspects of university operations and cannot be treated as merely a technology issue delegated to the computer science department.
The University of Washington announced today a transformative $10 million gift from Microsoft pioneer Charles Simonyi and his wife, Lisa Simonyi, to launch AI@UW, a comprehensive campus-wide initiative designed to position the university as a leader in the responsible and effective integration of artificial intelligence into classroom instruction and academic research.
The initiative establishes a new Vice Provost for Artificial Intelligence position, the first of its kind at a major research university, with Professor Noah Smith of the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering selected to serve in the inaugural role. The creation of this senior leadership position reflects the university’s recognition that artificial intelligence represents not merely another technological tool but a fundamental shift in how teaching, learning, and research are conducted that requires dedicated strategic leadership.
Smith indicated there exists substantial expertise around intelligent AI adoption distributed across the UW campus, “and what I really want to do is connect all of that, bring it together, map out what people already know and are doing, cast the light on it so we can all learn from each other more effectively and accelerate it.” His vision emphasises coordination and knowledge-sharing amongst faculty, researchers, and administrators who are independently experimenting with AI applications but lack mechanisms for sharing insights and best practices.
Faculty across disciplines are eager, perhaps even desperate, for institutional support and guidance navigating AI’s rapidly expanding role in education, according to Smith.
“If you ask faculty what’s the one question on their minds right now, it’s: ‘My students are using AI. What now? What am I supposed to do? How do we respond to this?'” Smith stated, capturing the anxiety and uncertainty many professors feel as they watch students incorporate AI tools into their academic work whilst lacking clear institutional policies or pedagogical frameworks for appropriate use.
The UW’s response, as articulated by Smith, involves establishing parameters where AI assists students by answering questions, generating study materials, or providing feedback, but does not complete assignments or produce work that students submit as their own. On the faculty side, AI can aid in creating assessment tools, generating practice problems, providing personalised feedback at scale, and identifying students who may be struggling, but should not replace the human judgment and expertise that define quality teaching.
Smith is advocating for open conversations and transparency around AI use, helping students understand where AI complements their academic journey by enhancing learning efficiency and deepening understanding, versus where it undermines education by doing cognitive work students need to perform themselves to develop skills and knowledge.
“You don’t go to university,” he stated plainly, “if you don’t actually want to learn.” This observation cuts to the heart of concerns about AI in education, where the technology’s ability to generate essays, solve problems, and answer questions creates temptations for students to shortcut the learning process, ultimately cheating themselves of the education they ostensibly seek.
A key component of AI@UW is its grant programme, SEED-AI, which stands for Supporting Educational Excellence and Discovery. The competitive grants will provide funding to faculty across the university who propose innovative, exploratory approaches for integrating AI into their courses in ways that could be scaled and adopted widely. The call for grant proposals should be issued within the next few weeks, with recipients expected to be announced later in the academic year.
Smith highlighted three additional focus areas that will structure AI@UW’s work beyond the grants programme:
Governance and policy involves creating a governance committee charged with establishing infrastructure for setting AI use policies that facilitate innovation in the classroom whilst protecting academic integrity. This committee will need to balance competing interests including faculty autonomy, student learning outcomes, equity concerns around differential AI access, and institutional liability for how AI is used in university settings.
AI literacy courses will be developed for all undergraduates, addressing AI capabilities, limitations, and implications from different disciplinary perspectives so students “have an understanding of AI that is not grounded in fear or grounded in fantasy and hype,” Smith stated. These courses recognise that AI literacy has become essential general education, comparable to writing, quantitative reasoning, or digital literacy, that students need regardless of their majors or career paths.
An expert network will connect AI specialists within the UW who can assist faculty working on research and education projects requiring customised AI tools. Many faculty have project-specific needs, such as analysing large datasets, generating synthetic training data, or building domain-specific AI applications, but lack the technical expertise to implement solutions themselves. The expert network provides consultation and development support, removing technical barriers that might otherwise prevent innovative applications.
UW President Robert Jones indicated the initiative and new vice provost role will help the university maintain its “strategic advantage” as a leader in AI research and application.
“We need somebody that wakes up each and every day that thinks about AI across the three parts of our mission: our teaching, our research and our innovation agenda,” Jones stated. “So that’s the value proposition.” His comment reflects recognition that AI pervades all aspects of university operations and cannot be treated as merely a technology issue delegated to the computer science department.
