Tennessee’s AI Education Policy Landscape

Student Population : 1,001,900

Official Policies

UPDATE: As of March, 2024, both of Tennessee’s General Assembly houses have passed Senate Bill 1711, which sets a July 1st deadline for boards of public and charter schools to establish and submit AI use policy to the Department of Education in hopes that such policy will be enacted by the start of the 2024-2025 academic year. Governor Lee is expected to sign the bill in the coming weeks. More information on the bill can be found here.

No guidance or notable mention of AI on TN Department of Education site.

Universities

University of Tennessee has developed “AI Tennessee Initiative”, which aims to “advance cutting-edge research and creative activity across all disciplines at their intersections with AI”, including a mission to put artificial intelligence education into all K-12 classroom in the country.

Vanderbilt University: As of June 2023, Vanderbilt had launched a “Future of Learning and Generative AI Initiative and interdisciplinary advisory board” with an aim “to take the opportunity to explore [AI Technology] and to train Vanderbilt students, faculty and staff to leverage the best of this cutting-edge technology”. The university has also posted a page called “Syllabus AI Policies”, in which it leaves it “up to individual faculty to decide whether and how AI tools are used in their courses or research work”. The page also provides a number of ways to talk about AI use in the classroom, as well as how to frame the technology in syllabi and coursework.