In 2018, the most visible marker of technological innovation at Ohio State could be measured in the weight of a student’s backpack.

For then-undergraduate Christian Collins, that shift arrived through the Digital Flagship initiative, a university-wide program that placed a new iPad into the hands of incoming Buckeyes.

Framed as a push for “technological access,” the effort aimed to close gaps for students who arrived without up-to-date devices.

At the time, the iPad functioned as both a tool and symbol: a gateway to connectivity in an era when artificial intelligence still sat at the edges of campus life rather than inside its classroom policy.

Eight years later, that hardware has faded into the background of student life. The buzzword now shaping campus strategy is artificial intelligence.

Today, students like Ayush Sagar, a second-year in computer science and engineering and vice-president of Claude Builder’s Club at OSU, describe an experience where AI is present in school.

“It’s showing up a little more in my general classes,” Sagar said.

He said the real stressor with AI usage, is knowing when students can and cannot use it.

That technological shift has since crystallized into one of Ohio State’s most expansive academic initiatives in recent years: “AI fluency.”

Chris Booker, a university spokesperson, said the effort is part of Ohio State’s broader academic excellence plan and is designed as a multi-year rollout across all colleges.

Per prior Lantern reporting from June 2025, the university formally introduced the term to outline a plan: to ensure that by 2029, all students graduate with the ability to understand and apply AI within their discipline.

But nearly a year after the announcement, students and faculty describe something far less defined: an initiative that exists more as a long-term vision than a fully detailed plan, with expectations varying widely across classrooms.

Central to this rollout was former university President Walter “Ted” Carter, marking a transition from earlier efforts focused on direct technological access to a broader push to embed AI directly into teaching and learning across campus.

“Ohio State has an opportunity and responsibility to prepare students to not just keep up, but lead in this workforce of the future,” Carter stated in the June 4 press release announcing the initiative. “I’m so pleased that we are taking this bold step forward to set our students up for success and keep Ohio competitive for the long term. We have a strong foundation on which to build, and the AI Fluency initiative will only accelerate our momentum in mission-driven AI research and education.”

On Sept 2, 2025, then executive vice-president and provost Ravi V. Bellamkonda outlined more of the rollout— including the introduction of AI courses in Launch Seminar, direct tool access for Buckeyes and differing forums for students to attend.

Now the current President of Ohio State, Bellamkonda said the university aims to make their students “bilingual students— students who are fluent in AI, but really in the application of AI to the interest of their major and minor,” in the release video.

Despite the excitement and push, some students say things have looked differently on their end this past school year.?

Sagar said he’s had to advocate for himself to use AI to check his coursework.?

“One of my teachers finally allowed me to check my lab report with AI, and make sure I meet all of the rubrics, requirements and points.”

In his program, he said he is barely even using AI in class.

“I don’t think there is enough AI usage in school,” he said. “Especially being a computer science major, me telling you ‘I was just able to check my lab report using AI’ shows how barebones the actual usage in class is.”

On the administrative side of things, the initiative rollout has appeared differently.?

One of the university’s progress markers has been the addition of an AI Faculty Fellow into the Office of Academic Affairs, Michael Flierl, who began his work as a faculty fellow during the autumn semester.

“This is a four-year effort,” Flierl said. “The AI fluency effort is attempting to, by 2029, create students who are AI fluent in their field or discipline.”

Flierl said their work is already taking shape through campus-wide forums that bring together instructors, administrators and academic leaders.

“[The goal] is to inspire the Buckeye community to take this as a challenge and shape the future of AI technologies in a way that is in alignment with our values, that further deepens learning that we are proud of,” Flierl said.?

For the 2018 graduate Collins, the implementation of AI is stark.

He said tools meant to assist students during undergrad such as Carmen or Microsoft Word preserved the cognitive work students put into assignments.

“It makes it physically easier to write, but I still have to write my own thing,” Collins said. “I’m still very active in that process. It feels different than just developing a new skill. It feels like the usage of AI really takes away from the learning process itself.”

Tanya Berger-Wolf, a professor of computer science and engineering, electrical and computer engineering, and evolution, ecology and organismal biology, feels differently.?

She is the director of the Translational Data Analytics Institute, Ohio State’s largest research institute and said AI must be integrated into life if students want to remain successful.?

“AI is not going to take a job. People who know how to use AI will take your job,” Berger-Wolf said.?

She said being fearful of the newly developing technology is normal, but understanding prevents misuse.?

“Like any complex tool, it can explode in your hands if you don’t know how to use it,” Berger-Wolf said.

Looking at the initiative, Flierl said there are 3 pillars the university hopes to reach.?

First is foundational understanding: how AI systems actually work, including machine learning, neural networks and large language models. The goal is to strip away what he called the “magic box” perception.

Second is disciplinary application. Use of AI should shift depending on the field. A historian might analyze archival collections at scale, while a dentistry student could engage with clinical simulations.

“It’s discipline first, AI second,” Flierl said.

Third is consequence: ethical, environmental and societal impacts, including bias in training data, energy consumption, and reliance on automated systems in cognitive work.

Berger-Wolf said that interdisciplinary push reflects a broader shift at Ohio State, where AI is increasingly embedded in research spaces but experienced unevenly in the classroom.

?To students, however, the rollout can look and feel different, leading many to navigate AI adoption on their own.

Anirudh Chinthagunta, a second-year in computer science and engineering and president of the AI Club on campus said he has not seen much of it in the classroom.

“In CSE, AI is still strongly disapproved,” he said, “We aren’t allowed to use AI to create code, check errors or compile code.”

He said he finds it interesting that his general education courses are where he is allowed to use AI.?

“In terms of my GE courses or writing assignments, I have seen AI, specifically living learning models that we are allowed to use,” Chinthagunta said.

“It’s more of a use AI to create this paper and describe your thoughts,” he said.

Some students like Chinthagunta find the inconsistency of when students can and cannot use AI is the hardest part of the rollout.?

“Finding a balance between utilizing it for efficiency without making it do all of the work is probably the best course of action,” he said.

University efforts to combine AI into colleges has been on the rise.

This spring semester per prior Lantern reporting, Arts and Humanities AI Institute opened at Ohio State is part of the College of Arts and Sciences’ effort to extend the university’s AI Fluency Initiative into humanities disciplines.

According to the college, the initiative is intended to integrate AI into humanities curricula while drawing on faculty expertise in both AI foundations and disciplinary practice. It also positions the arts and humanities as central to understanding how AI systems are developed and applied.

The institute is expected to support coursework and research that examines how AI interacts with culture, including questions of ethics, bias, creativity and historical interpretation. It also aims to facilitate collaboration with external partners and expand internship opportunities tied to AI in arts and humanities fields.

To help students develop stronger AI literacy, Sagar and Chinthagunta lead AI-focused organizations on campus that emphasize hands-on learning and technical understanding.

Chinthagunta’s AI Club hosts project-based learning sessions designed to help students understand the technical foundations of artificial intelligence. The organization also held HackAI in February, a 25-hour event aimed at encouraging STEM students to apply AI tools directly to real-world projects.

Sagar, a product ambassador for Claude Builders, provides members with free access to Claude, an AI tool similar to ChatGPT that can assist with coding, writing and document analysis. The club focuses on giving students direct exposure to AI systems they are likely to encounter in academic and professional settings.

While these organizations expand student access and familiarity with AI tools, Collins said concerns remain around how the technology is regulated in academic settings, pointing to unclear boundaries in coursework expectations and potential misuse.

“The end goal of these LLMs isn’t to be right or accurate, it’s to satisfy what the user is asking for,” Collins said. “The LLM is not thinking about anything you mention or thinking about proper citing and word count, or professor style.”

But for some current students like Sagar, the larger concern isn’t overuse, it’s under-preparation and a need for better understanding.

“That’s the way the world is moving forward,” Sagar said. “And we’re not being prepared for it.”