Step into the future of creativity at the Abu Dhabi Culture Summit 2025. This video explores how artificial intelligence is reshaping cultural preservation, creation, and access. Featuring HE Sheikh Salem bin Khalid Al Qassimi on the UAE’s cultural AI strategy, Tracy Chan (Splash) on Gen Z’s role in co-creating culture, and Iyad Rahwan on the rise of “machine culture” and the ethics of AI for global inclusion.

Discover how India is leveraging AI to preserve its heritage and foster its creative economy. The session underscores a shared vision for a “co-human” future — where technology enhances, rather than replaces, human values and cultural expression.

In answer to a future that will increasingly be shaped by AI, Olin College is incorporating AI and ethics concepts into multiple courses and disciplines for today’s engineering students. By preparing tomorrow’s leading engineers to develop confident, competent perspectives on how to use AI, students will be prepared to make ethical decisions throughout their careers.

For example, in its ‘Artificial Intelligence and Society’ class, students examine the impact of engineering on humanity and the ethical implications through multiple perspectives, including anthropology and computer science.

Each week, Olin students examine different topics, from bias in large language models like ChatGPT to parallels between perspectives on AI today and the 19th-century Luddite movement of English textile workers who opposed the use of cost-saving machinery. They also hear from healthcare and climate researchers who discuss the benefits of AI in their fields, such as using machine learning to identify inequities in the healthcare system or to improve renewable energy storage.

For their final project, students work in groups to design AI ethics content that can be incorporated into existing Olin courses. Together, students and faculty design problems for future engineering students to dissect, such as the ethical question of when to use AI tools in real-life scenarios.

Through pioneering this curriculum, the next generation of Olin engineers are equipped with excellent technical skills that complement their desire to change the world and the ability to adapt to a rapidly-changing society.

Founded just twenty-five years ago, Olin College of Engineering has made a name for itself in the world of undergraduate engineering education. It is currently ranked No. 2 Undergraduate Engineering Program by US News & World Report. Olin was the first undergraduate engineering school in the United States to achieve gender parity with half its student population being women. It is known around the world for its innovative curriculum. In a recent study, “The global state of the art in engineering education,” Olin was named one of the world’s most highly regarded undergraduate engineering programs.

The curriculum at Olin College is centered around providing students with real-world experiences. Students complete dozens of projects over their four years, preparing them well for the workforce of today — and tomorrow. And the world needs more engineers. US labor statistics suggest the country will need six million more engineers to graduate, to fully meet the demand for their critical skill set.

An emphasis on ethics isn’t surprising given that Olin’s most visible alumna is Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen. In her new book “The Power of One,” Haugen writes about her experience at Olin as a place that “believed integrating the humanities into its engineering curriculum was essential because it wanted its alumni to understand not just whether a solution could be built, but whether it should be built.”

Learn more about Olin’s unique approach to engineering education at olin.edu.

Higher education institutions are rapidly embracing artificial intelligence, but often without a comprehensive strategic framework. According to the 2025 EDUCAUSE AI Landscape Study, 74% of institutions prioritized AI use for academic integrity alongside other core challenges like coursework (65%) and assessment (54%). At the same time, 68% of respondents say students use AI “somewhat more” or “a lot more” than faculty.

These data underscore a potential misalignment: Institutions recognize integrity as a top concern, but students are racing ahead with AI and faculty lack commensurate fluency. As a result, AI ethics debates are unfolding in classrooms with underprepared educators.

The necessity of integrating ethical considerations alongside AI tools in education is paramount. Employers have made it clear that ethical reasoning and responsible technology use are critical skills in today’s workforce. According to the Graduate Management Admission Council’s 2024 Corporate Recruiters Survey, these skills are increasingly vital for graduates, underscoring ethics as a competitive advantage rather than merely a supplemental skill.

Yet, many institutions struggle to clearly define how ethics should intertwine with their AI-enhanced pedagogical practices. Recent discussions with education leaders from Grammarly, SAS, and the University of Delaware offer actionable strategies to ethically and strategically integrate AI into higher education.

Ethical AI At The Core

Grammarly’s commitment to ethical AI was partially inspired by a viral incident: a student using Grammarly’s writing support was incorrectly accused of plagiarism by an AI detector. In response, Grammarly introduced Authorship, a transparency tool that delineates student-created content from AI-generated or refined content. Authorship provides crucial context for student edits, enabling educators to shift from suspicion to meaningful teaching moments.

Similarly, SAS has embedded ethical safeguards into its platform, SAS Viya, featuring built-in bias detection tools and ethically vetted “model cards.” These features help students and faculty bring awareness to and proactively address potential biases in AI models.

SAS supports faculty through comprehensive professional development, including an upcoming AI Foundations credential with a module focused on Responsible Innovation and Trustworthy AI. Grammarly partners directly with institutions like the University of Florida, where Associate Provost Brian Harfe redesigned a general education course to emphasize reflective engagement with AI tools, enhancing student agency and ethical awareness.

Campus Spotlight: University of Delaware

The University of Delaware offers a compelling case study. In the wake of COVID-19, their Academic Technology Services team tapped into 15 years of lecture capture data to build “Study Aid,” a generative AI-powered tool that helps students create flashcards, quizzes, and summaries from course transcripts. Led by instructional designer Erin Ford Sicuranza and developer Jevonia Harris, the initiative exemplifies ethical, inclusive innovation:

• Data Integrity: The system uses time-coded transcripts, ensuring auditability and traceability.
• Human in the Loop: Faculty validate topics before the content is used.
• Knowledge Graph Approach: Instead of retrieval-based AI, the tool builds structured data to map relationships and respect academic complexity.
• Cross-Campus Collaboration: Librarians, engineers, data scientists, and faculty were involved from the start.
• Ethical Guardrails: Student access is gated until full review, and the university retains consent-based control over data.

Though the tool is still in pilot phase, faculty from diverse disciplines—psychology, climate science, marketing—have opted in. With support from AWS and a growing slate of speaking engagements, UD has emerged as a national model. Their “Aim Higher” initiative brought together IT leaders, faculty, and software developers to a conference and hands-on AI Makerspace in June 2025.

As Sicuranza put it: “We didn’t set out to build AI. We used existing tools in a new way—and we did it ethically.”

An Ethical Roadmap For The AI Era

Artificial intelligence is not a neutral force—it reflects the values of its designers and users. As colleges and universities prepare students for AI-rich futures, they must do more than teach tools. They must cultivate responsibility, critical thinking, and the ethical imagination to use AI wisely. Institutions that lead on ethics will shape the future—not just of higher education, but of society itself.

Now is the time to act by building capacity, empowering communities, and leading with purpose.