The University will provide all students, faculty and staff access to ChatGPT Plus or Pro, a paid version of OpenAI’s premier large language model.
Students will be able to request access to ChatGPT Plus before the start of next semester, and faculty and staff could request access beginning Wednesday. The pilot program is designed to last one year, and a decision to “continue offering campus-wide licenses” will be made at the end of the first year.
In an email sent to all faculty and staff on Wednesday morning obtained by The Daily Princetonian, University Provost Jennifer Rexford ’91 outlined the changes.
“Princeton has negotiated a pilot enterprise program with OpenAI that broadens access to ChatGPT for the University community, provides greater data security and privacy protections than available through individual arrangements, and reduces costs for departments and researchers already using OpenAI’s tools,” Rexford’s email began.
According to the Office of Information Technology website, “Undergraduate and graduate students may start requesting accounts in January before the start of the Spring semester; additional information will be provided to students in the coming weeks.”
Faculty can also get access to the higher-level Pro account and can request capacity overage.
The Plus version of ChatGPT costs $20 per month for an individual member of the public, and will be offered at no cost to all students. ChatGPT Pro accounts normally cost $100 monthly and will require an “additional monthly charge through departmental chartstring chargeback” of $50 under the University program.
Researchers, including graduate students, can also request to be considered for a ChatGPT Pro account.
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Since federal funding cuts were announced last year and in the wake of decreased long-term projected returns on the endowment, the University has undertaken a series of budget reductionary measures. Most recently, “budgetary considerations” were cited in Tuesday’s decision to cut Outdoor Action, Community Action, and Dialogue and Difference in Action as mandatory Orientation programs.
“The Princeton ChatGPT pilot lets us purchase campus-wide licenses for ChatGPT at a fraction of market rates,” University spokesperson Michael Hotchkiss wrote in a statement to the ‘Prince.’ The specific rate that Princeton is paying for access to the accounts was not immediately clear.
According to the website FAQs, an agreement between Princeton and OpenAI lays out data security provisions not offered to the general public. The content entered by University users through the Princeton ChatGPT accounts will not be used to train future OpenAI models.
“The pilot access to Princeton ChatGPT is covered by the University’s enterprise agreement with OpenAI, providing administrative controls and greater data privacy and security protections than available through individual arrangements,” the website states.
“Just got an email announcing that Princeton is offering ChatGPT accounts to all undergrads next semester,” history professor Kevin Kruse wrote in a post on Bluesky. “Looking forward to other helpful innovations like giving them unlimited heroin or free handguns.”
University faculty will have the ability to determine the range of AI model use in class assignments, including by requiring use of the University’s ChatGPT accounts.
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“If a particular assignment requires (or permits) the use of AI tools, faculty may require that students use Princeton ChatGPT to complete course assessments and that students include all logs with their submission,” the website states.
The pilot announcement comes two weeks after University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 addressed his own choice to avoid using artificial intelligence tools directly for writing in a public statement.
“I do not use AI to brainstorm, draft, or edit my writing or scholarship,” Eisgruber wrote. “I want my writing to bear the hard-earned imprint of my thinking and voice, not the slick signature of a word-prediction machine. I want to be able to stand by, and to understand as fully as possible, what I say.
Eisgruber said that while he has used AI tools to assist with research and citation formatting, he checks the outputs rigorously.
“Perhaps my view about AI and writing will change in the future, but, for now, I avoid AI assiduously when I compose or revise text. I do not want AI chattering at me, suggesting easy answers to the questions that I am pursuing. If I alter my practice in the future, I will disclose that decision,” he continued.
In the announcement email, Rexford wrote that the rollout of student access in January will “give faculty time to consider how the campus-wide licensing of ChatGPT may affect their pedagogical choices.”
“I know the topic of AI at Princeton and in higher education is complex and raises many questions,” she wrote, “We will continue to address the opportunities and challenges associated with AI through our ordinary processes and ad-hoc forums. I encourage everyone to participate.”
Gray Collins is the assistant News editor for the ‘Prince’ leading University administration coverage. He is from outside of Philadelphia and can be reached at gray[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
