Why the University of Utah decided to hire a CAIO

In February, Manish Parashar had his first day of school at the University of Utah—not as a student, but as the institution’s first chief AI officer (CAIO).

Parashar, who had previously served as the university’s chair in computational science and engineering, told IT Brew it was crucial for the university to hire a dedicated AI leader because of how quickly AI is evolving.

“We needed to incorporate AI holistically into the university’s mission,” Parashar said. “And so that’s why we created this role as a way to coordinate, to be able to develop guidelines, share best practices, provide upskilling enablement services, provide infrastructure and tools to the university community, so that we can use AI effectively, but also responsibly.”

Man with a plan. One can say Parashar was the right guy for the job. Prior to his current role, he said, he had served as the office director of the National Science Foundation’s office of advanced cyber infrastructure. There, he helped advance research and education in AI for the country.

“I also was part of the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the White House for a year or so, and again, I led a lot of the activities around creating national science policy and infrastructure, including around AI,” he added.

Still, much of his latest role has involved learning on the job, Parashar said, who has seen not only how quickly AI is evolving, but the diversity of the university community relying on it.

“People use it every day, including from typing emails to doing very complex research. They’re using it in different ways, and their needs are different, and how they engage with it is different,” he said.

He added that students, who are largely digital natives, often use the technology without knowing it, thanks to its integration into common tools such as video conferencing apps and word processors.

“Sometimes they don’t realize it, so they don’t understand what the issues are. They don’t understand many of the ethical dimensions that AI brings in,” Parashar said. “It’s less about how to use the technology.”

Parashar said the University of Utah has several initiatives to address this problem, including a recurring series where students can talk candidly about issues around AI; it also offers training to bolster awareness of the technology, as well as an AI and ethics program.

However, education is just one piece of the puzzle. Parashar’s job also involves creating appropriate guardrails for students and faculty members to use AI safely. That includes creating sandboxes, developing partnerships with AI providers, and giving the students “access to the state-of-the-art technology, so that when they go into the marketplace, they can be the most effective at their jobs.”

“The second part of it is creating guidelines and policy structure so that we are able to define what data can be used with which tool, when certain things cannot be done, what tools cannot be used,” Parashar said.

AI frenzy. The University of Utah is one of many institutions welcoming a CAIO to its staff. George Mason University, the University of Oklahoma, and the Carle Illinois College of Medicine are just a few institutions that have debuted their first CAIO in recent years. Parashar told IT Brew that’s likely because the higher education sector has come to realize that AI must be addressed “head-on” since the technology can impact their broader mission.

“They also know that they cannot do this in an ad hoc way because again, it touches all aspects,” Parashar said. “They need [a] place where they can coordinate and do this in a more thoughtful way.”

IT Brew has previously reported on the rise of CAIOs and other AI-centric leaders in the enterprise setting. Parashar said there are key distinctions between serving as the AI leader for a private-sector company versus an educational institution.

“The university has a different mission in advancing training students, which is the most important part, to be the best future citizens of the state and the nation [and] advancing research in important areas such as health and engineering and science and societal aspects,” Parashar said.

He also expects the CAIO role will remain a staple within the education industry. “Maybe it gets assimilated into other tech, like chief technology officer or chief information officer, but I think in the near term…this role will continue for a little while,” Parashar said. “And many universities interpret it differently, and so we are seeing that evolving, as well.”