Generative AI as a challenge to faculty development: ugly advice at the dawn of generative AI

The rise of generative AI has led to a new set of challenges for academics involved in faculty professional development. This chapter explains how to identify unhelpful “ugly advice,” then suggests alternative approaches intended to be appealing as well as useful to faculty. The first step is to break the vast topic of AI’s implications for education into distinct, manageable sub-areas. Academic dishonesty, in particular, is likely to be foremost in faculty’s minds right now; while it is an important area to address in faculty-oriented AI guidance, it is also distinct from other topics such as positive uses of AI for teaching or how to best prepare students to use AI in their future careers. Grounding advice in specific disciplines and fields is also helpful in moving faculty toward uses of AI that they are excited to share with students.