The University of Tennessee plans to give students, faculty and staff at each of its five campuses full access to some of the world’s most popular generative artificial intelligence models beginning March 30. UT leadership say they partnered with Microsoft, which already provides the university’s email and file sharing platforms, to bring paid versions of ChatGPT, Grok, Perplexity and Claude to the classroom.
The AI tools being offered are each a type of large language model, which generate text and ideas in response to a prompt from a user. Since OpenAI released its ChatGPT model in late 2022, it and other competing platforms have exploded in popularity. By 2024, over 70% of businesses around the world reported using AI, according to data from Stanford University.
While most of the AI models offer a free, publicly accessible version, many of their more advanced features such as image and video generation, complex thinking or deep internet searching are locked behind a paywall, some of which cost over $100/month. UT Chief Academic Technology Officer Dan Harder said they wanted to eliminate that paywall for professors, students and staff on UT’s campuses.
“You can pick any AI model you want, and it will be available, and the data will be secure and private,” Harder said. “You don't have to go out and buy your own license. If you're doing UT work or UT academic work, you can use our ecosystem.”
Harder said he began working with Provost John Zomchick to bring the platforms to campus last Fall when they started hearing from faculty who wanted access to the latest AI tools for use in the classroom.
“There are faculty who are already using it a lot and are quite excited about it, there are faculty who want to learn more about it, and there are faculty who choose not to use it at all, and I respect all three of those attitudes,” said Zomchick. “And so for the faculty in the middle who are looking for more help in how this might influence their instructional practice, we want to make sure that we deliver for them the support that they need in order to maybe integrate this into what they're teaching.”
Many professors at UT are still grappling with whether to embrace AI or not. Anne Langendorfer is an associate professor of English at UT and the president of the United Campus Workers Southeast. She said union members are skeptically optimistic about the UT AI Hub.
“I think that some faculty have found it to be very useful in organizing their thoughts, lesson plans, slide decks,” Langendorfer said. “But I also am a bit concerned, because I have heard some negative things from students where they say, ‘Oh, we know that our faculty are using it and it just doesn't feel authentic.’”
Since generative AI rapidly expanded in popularity, professors and students alike have worried about use of the platforms in the classroom. Faculty worry their students will use it to complete coursework such as essays or short-answer quizzes, while students are afraid their professors are using it to generate instructional content.
According to Zomchick, members of UT Knoxville’s Student Government Association have expressed concerns about the potential for learning loss among students. It’s a well-documented phenomenon exacerbated by frequent use of AI that prevents students who use the platforms to complete schoolwork from retaining material. Zomchick said he’s hopeful professors will be able to adapt to counter that loss.
“We think that once faculty understand what these tools can do and what they can't do, they can begin to create … the kinds of assessments that can't simply be performed by putting a prompt into a large language model and producing a canned essay,” he said. “I do think it's really important for us to adapt to changes.”
But faculty at universities across the country worry they aren’t being consulted about these changes. In May 2025, the American Association of University Professors published a study that found university administrators have increasingly pushed to incorporate AI in classrooms without first consulting professors and lecturers.
Langendorfer echoed those concerns. She said none of her colleagues were asked for their input about the UT AI Hub ahead of its announcement.
“I would want both faculty and students to have had a big say in determining what an AI hub would look like,” Langendorfer said. “Workers at the university deserve a voice in their workplace, and that is a very complex task because it does require transparency in decision making, and I understand there are lots of places where that is difficult to bring people in.”
Zomchick said he fielded faculty thoughts about AI during monthly open meetings. He added that the university has hired two consultants to speak with professors about their AI preferences, though Langendorfer said she doesn’t know of anyone who has spoken with them yet.
Student, faculty and staff data used by the AI platforms will be kept secure on private servers maintained by Microsoft, according to Harder. He said the use of the platforms will be monitored, and if necessary throttled, to ensure responsible energy use and to manage costs.
