The University is making a âsubstantial commitmentâ to purchasing GPUs for faculty and students to have access to computing power.
Claire Nam
12:55 am, Mar 04, 2025
Staff Reporter
Yale News
Yale plans to make artificial intelligence an academic and financial priority, Provost Scott Strobel reiterated in an interview with the News.
In January 2024, Strobel assembled the Yale Task Force on Artificial Intelligence, a committee of faculty and senior leaders across academic disciplines, to strategize AI initiatives at Yale. The Universityâs work will start with increasing access to AI computing power while also exploring the institutionâs position in the ethics of AI, Strobel said on Monday.
âOne of the things we consistently heard about was access [to tools and computing],â Strobel said of the task force meetings. âWeâve made a substantial commitment to purchasing GPUs so that faculty and students have access to the computing power they need. Now, weâre not Google and Open AI. Weâre not spending billions of dollars on this, but we will increase the capacity of the University to have GPU access.â
The task force was created two years after ChatGPT’s public release. Since then, Yale has pledged $150 million over five years to invest in AI, and University leaders have been convening with companies like Google and Microsoft to discuss the direction of the field, Strobel said.
In August 2024, Nisheeth Vishnoi, a professor of computer science and member of the task force, stated that investment in AI is necessary for Yale to remain âcompetitiveâ as AI innovation expands at peer universities.
âThis is something that had to be done,â Vishnoi said. â[If it did not] then I think pretty soon [Yale would] become a very unattractive and non-competitive place.â
When asked how Yale plans on catching up to universities like MIT, which recently pledged $1 billion in AI investments, Strobel said that the Universityâs goal for AI is not to compete with other higher education institutions. Instead, he noted the distinctions between the competing roles of industry and higher education.
âI see it as a competition between higher education and industry. Our question is, what role do universities have in this new AI world?â he said. âIt’s not to make money. Itâs to think about what this means in terms of ethical consequences, ethical impacts, and what AI makes possible in research, advancement, and discovery.â
In late March, the office will begin drafting its budget plan for the next fiscal year to finalize in June. According to Strobel, the process will involve a series of 45 to 50 meetings in which faculty from each budgetary unit will request funding allocations while presenting revenue and expense plans to the officeâs Budget Advisory Group.
When asked about the Universityâs plans for investing in STEM programs, the provost pointed toward a longer-term approach to the officeâs academic strategy. The budget generally does not fluctuate significantly year-to-year and âwe hope it stays consistent,â he added.
Strobel stated that currently, the Universityâs largest ongoing investment in the physical sciences is an upcoming building dedicated to quantum research, which will be located next to Wright Physics Laboratory.
The provost acknowledged that a âhuge financial investmentâ is necessary for universities like Yale to âbe great at the physical and biological sciences.â One of the âexpectations,â he stated, is for University scientists to gradually stop relying on University funds as they develop a research portfolio that is supported by grants.
Recent weeks have seen significant disruptions to federal science funding due to executive orders and policy changes. The National Science Foundation froze funds for existing research grants, while the National Institute of Health implemented cuts up to 15 percent for indirect costs â both measures were temporarily blocked by federal courts. Meanwhile, scientists at Yale have reported delays in grant approvals.
The Provost stated that the University will continue to take a more holistic approach to academic investment rather than emphasize one specific area.
In May, the Office of the Provost will host a campus-wide symposium where Yale students, faculty, and staff will share and discuss the ways in which they are engaging with AI.
Claire Nam covers the president’s office. She is also an editor for the Yale Daily News Magazine. Originally from New York, she is a first year in Jonathan Edwards College.
