The University's AI Hub gave the Board of Regents a progress report, and it covered more than plans. The interim vice provost for artificial intelligence told a regents committee that the hub has started AI literacy training for incoming students and staff, launched ai.umn.edu and is opening up access to AI tools.
The interim vice provost for AI walks the committee through the hub's first months: training, the new website, tool access and statewide partnerships.10/08
The website is where most people will run into the hub first. It lists which AI tools the University has approved and what kinds of data you can put into each. Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini are free. ChatGPT Edu is a paid subscription for faculty, staff and graduate students, and it has to be billed to a University EFS chartstring. If your department doesn't have one, you aren't getting it. The site also lists workshops and programs, including GenAI + U for instructors and AI Quests, a hands-on project initiative.
The update was also about the rest of the state. The University says the hub is meant to be a statewide center for AI and data science. Its stated goals include AI research in agriculture, medicine and materials science, AI learning resources for pre-K through high school students, and training for people already working in healthcare, manufacturing and agriculture. The University named the USDA, the National Science Foundation and M Health Fairview as partners.
Things got more specific when a student representative asked how AI would be brought into classrooms. AI Hub leaders said faculty will not be required to use AI and keep their academic freedom on the question. If you have a professor who bans chatbots, nothing in this rollout overrides that.
Cunningham then laid out the expectation coming from the top. She said the board's strategic plan includes a metric calling for every student to graduate with AI literacy. Put the two answers together and no single course has to use AI, but the University has signed up for every graduate to leave with AI literacy. How it gets there will depend on each college and department.
A student representative asks about AI in the classroom. Hub leaders say faculty keep the choice, and Cunningham cites the board's AI literacy metric for graduates.10/08
For students, the short version: if you're new this year, you've probably already seen the literacy training. Free Copilot and Gemini are available now through your U account, and departments are likely to get more specific about what AI literacy means in their programs over time. For instructors, the hub's GenAI + U programming is the place to start, whether you plan to use AI in your course or plan to keep it out.
