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Georgetown University plans to expand use of artificial intelligence (AI) by providing community members with access to generative AI tools within the coming months and developing AI-focused curricula, the university announced in two Feb. 23 emails.
Following efforts to incorporate AI into learning, including new courses and educational initiatives, the university will begin offering access to Google’s AI assistant Gemini to faculty and staff in March before expanding access to students, and will launch curricula in the College of Arts & Sciences (CAS) and the McDonough School of Business (MSB) dedicated to AI in Fall 2026. The university is also introducing new policies to safeguard the data of community members and maintain current university AI guidelines developed in January 2024.
Interim University President Robert M. Groves, who sent the first email, said the university intends to provide a range of generative AI tools to community members.
“Over the next few months, we will introduce generative AI tools to our community, beginning with Gemini, Google’s AI Assistant, which will be accessible to faculty and staff in early March and to students shortly after,” Groves wrote in the email. “This will be the first personal generative AI assistant tool that Georgetown will offer. We intend to introduce additional tools soon to give our community the opportunity to experience a wide range of generative AI.”
The College will launch a new cross-major concentration focused on the ethics and applications of AI, and the MSB will institute a new MBA program core requirement involving AI, according to a second email sent by Interim Provost Soyica Diggs Colbert (COL ’01).
Colbert also said Georgetown will collaborate with MedStar Health to create a simulation center that incorporates AI to promote collaboration between students and faculty at the Georgetown University Medical Center. Professors at the Georgetown University Law Center are also conducting scholarship on AI regulations and the use of AI in legal practice.
Groves said incorporating Gemini into learning is the latest university effort to understand AI’s role within education.
“Since 2022, Georgetown has been engaged in multiple efforts to understand the possibilities offered by Artificial Intelligence (AI),” Groves wrote. “New courses, pedagogy initiatives, and faculty-led discussions have prepared our next step: Providing our community with direct access to generative AI to support research, pedagogy, and administrative work.”
Current university policy gives professors discretion over the role and use of AI in their courses, which has led to differences and discrepancies of AI use within the classroom.
Groves said faculty will continue to have authority over AI use.
“In addition, faculty will retain control over the use of AI in their classrooms and teaching; students will be expected to follow faculty guidance on approved use in their individual courses,” Groves wrote. “Staff should consult their managers, and all members of the community should refer to the University’s AI Guidelines webpage for pertinent policies and guidelines on responsible and permissible AI engagement.”
Colbert said AI’s growing role in society requires the university to adapt its approach to using AI in higher education.
“We recognize that the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence raises important opportunities, questions and concerns about its impact on learning, discovery, and advancing the mission of Georgetown,” Colbert wrote in the email. “We want to affirm that faculty remain the experts on appropriate use of any tool in their classrooms and we support faculty in making those determinations as AI and its uses evolve.”
“As with all complex global challenges, we are committed to preparing our students not simply to use powerful tools, but to question them, govern them responsibly, and apply them in service of the common good,” Colbert added.
The university will provide information and educational resources on how to use Gemini and other AI tools, in accordance with university guidelines, on the University Information Services website. Additionally, the university will continue expanding training resources through the Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship, which collaborates with faculty to develop teaching practices.
In the email, Groves referenced a Dec. 5 address by Pope Leo XIV, which emphasized the importance of approaching AI carefully and ethically to achieve the “common good” with AI.
Groves said the introduction of Gemini should adhere to Georgetown’s values of promoting intellectual and ethical learning.
“Finally, our Catholic and Jesuit values, as captured in Pope Leo XIV’s recent reflections about artificial intelligence, provide an instructive reminder of the stakes of our engagement and the importance of preserving human ingenuity and creativity at the core of research and education,” Groves wrote.
