Know Your Contract Proposal: Article XXIV. Ed Tech and AI

Over the summer, we would like to go further in-depth into key contract proposals that affect UIC faculty workplace rights. This time, we’ll be looking at Article XXIV. Educational Technology and Artificial Intelligence. Read on for a discussion of the proposal’s highlights, how we're looking towards the future, and the full proposal text.

**Remember: these are contract proposals; this language has not been agreed upon or signed into the contract.

Highlights:
At the heart of this article is a provision that allows faculty a choice to opt in or opt out from using AI technologies; faculty would maintain control over how AI and educational technologies would be incorporated into their teaching.

To accomplish the above, the proposed article provides for multiple levels of shared governance around AI-related issues. At the unit level, the proposed article calls for meaningful shared governance policies to be created for the implementation and use of AI. At the campus level, the provision requires the university to create a campuswide oversight committee overseeing the procurement, deployment, use, evaluation, and impact of AI products, surveillance, and educational technologies on workload.

Additionally, this proposed article offers faculty protection from 1) the involuntary collection of their intellectual property for the purposes of developing AI technologies and 2) retaliation in response to opting out of using AI technologies.

Why This Article Matters:
Not all faculty have the same views on AI itself let alone using it in the classroom, and therefore faculty should be able to choose whether or not to use any AI tool – and be protected from any retaliation for their choice.

Like most other issues, shared governance is key. Faculty should retain rights over intellectual property related to research and teaching, including in relation to training AI models, and faculty are best positioned to decide what products to procure and how they should be implemented.

Importantly, management already employs AI-powered monitoring and surveillance technology, which may disproportionately harm marginalized groups; therefore, adequate protection must be implemented to minimize such harm.

You can read the full language of our Ed Tech & AI contract proposal here.

You can read all proposals in our Public Bargaining Tracker.