Letter from the Dean
Dear HDS Community,
As a recent Chronicle feature on generative artificial intelligence declared, “the future is here.” We continue to watch our world adjust to the rapid emergence, adoption, and evolution of AI technologies. Institutions of higher learning must recognize and respond to the fact that students have already integrated AI into their educational toolset and are finding new applications for it every day.
At Harvard Divinity School, we have the great benefit of community members committed to the pressing task of staying abreast of the latest technological developments and the best pedagogical and scholarly practices. David Lamberth has been serving on the University committee exploring the implications of AI for teaching, Terrence Johnson has been serving on the University committee considering its effect on scholarship, Kristin Anderson has been serving on the University committee charged with examining its organizational and administrative uses, while Dan Hawkins and our whole Information Technology team are working to ensure we have the knowledge and the computing infrastructure to remain current with an everchanging landscape.
I am profoundly grateful for their work and I am acutely aware of its urgency. This collective community effort is reflected in our current policy documents, available here. Please familiarize yourselves with them and carefully consider their recommendations.
Given the swift rate at which AI is evolving, these documents and our application of them will undoubtedly need to adjust in the coming months and years. We will accordingly schedule a number of community conversations to discuss the lessons learned and the questions raised by our accumulating experience with these technologies. In the meantime, if you have concerns or counsel on the academic elements of this topic, please reach out to David Holland in his role as academic dean. If your issue is of a more technical nature, please be in touch with Dan Hawkins.
I look forward to working with you as we continually grow into new realities while resolutely upholding our lasting commitment to excellence in teaching and research.
Sincerely,
Marla F. Frederick
Dean of the Faculty of Divinity