Guiding Principles

Through discussions, benchmarking with other institutions, and consideration of the CSU’s mission and values, the Generative AI Committee recommends the following principles to inform the use, development, and evaluation of generative AI tools and technologies. 

  1. Uphold appropriate and responsible use. Usage of generative AI in the CSU must align to federal and state regulations and CSU and campus policies. Products may not be adopted or used that violate the law, and efforts should be made to use enterprise solutions with commercial data protection where feasible, rather than freely available tools on the open web. 
  2. Mitigate risk and promote good data stewardship. CSU faculty, staff, students, and other CSU affiliated individuals should safeguard personal data and may not expose CSU data (levels 1 and 2) to generative AI in a way that risks data privacy or security. 
  3. Ensure inclusivity and equitable access. The CSU should promote inclusive and equitable access to GenAI technologies and ensure that all CSU faculty, staff, and students have access to GenAI tools and training necessary to leverage them for teaching, learning, research, and work. Users of generative AI technologies should be aware of potential biases and possible toxic and inaccurate outputs. 
  4. Maintain integrity, honesty, and trust. Individuals using generative AI should do so within the policies and norms that govern their activities and should cite uses of generative AI whenever possible and appropriate. Individuals should take full responsibility for GenAI-generated materials to make sure that they are sound. 
  5. Improve efficiency and enable capacity. Work done with generative AI must be human-led and human-centered. Applications of generative AI in administrative processes should focus on increasing operational efficiency and reducing duplicative efforts. Campuses should exercise discipline in selecting AI tools, with a bias towards those that have proven impact. 
  6. Advocate for continuous learning and adaptation. As generative AI technologies evolve rapidly, the CSU should support ongoing faculty and staff development, training, and curricular integration to build internal capabilities while preparing our students for success during and beyond their academic studies.