After Michael Madison stepped off the stage at a University Senate plenary in April 2023, he turned to his fellow panelists with a simple proposal. The campus was buzzing over a technology that had arrived only months before, and the School of Law professor didn't want that energy to disappear into the usual academic silos.

That conversation became a monthly pizza lunch where faculty across disciplines could compare notes, share concerns and think through what generative artificial intelligence meant for their teaching and research. It also became an early thread in a broader, University-wide effort - one built collaboratively by faculty eager to talk through the technology and administrators working to coordinate a fast-moving set of AI initiatives across campus.

At the institutional level, that response took shape formally in February when Provost Joseph McCarthy announced the AI Coordination and Development Committee. Michael Colaresi, strategic advisor to the provost and director of the Hub for AI and Data Science Leadership (HAIL), chairs the group, which spans the Office of the Provost, Pitt Digital, Pitt Research, Pitt Health Sciences and Pitt Finance and Operations.

"We're trying to reduce that opacity about how to get answers for people - and connect what we want to do with what we're already good at doing," Colaresi said.

The committee's work ranges from setting guidance on responsible use to coordinating resources that advance a unified strategic vision across the University; one such resource is Pitt's AI tool infrastructure - the institution-approved platforms Pitt Digital makes available to students, faculty and staff through Generative AI@Pitt.

Mark Henderson, vice chancellor and chief information officer, said the portfolio was built around two concerns: equity and privacy. It also ensures that all students have access to professional-grade tools regardless of their ability to pay for them.

"Most students are already using generative AI tools, primarily free versions without privacy protections," Henderson said. "By providing institution-approved tools, we can ensure equitable access to professional-grade AI with privacy safeguards."

But access to tools, said Annette Vee, faculty liaison for AI enablement at Pitt Digital and associate professor in the Department of English, is only part of the picture. Vee has spent the past two years running AI workshops for faculty in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences and said the coordination work happening across campus is broader and deeper than what any website yet reflects.

"Pitt Digital is really good at providing access to tools, but we also need to help faculty use them effectively," Vee said. "I think it's crucial for faculty to know that they're not on their own."

For Henderson, AI tools help empower the Pitt community, not steer it.

"The tools are just one piece," Henderson said. "Keeping Pitt competitive and positioned as a leader in innovation means working across the entire University - connecting the right people, funding the right conversations, and building the infrastructure that makes that ambition real. We're not here to push a direction. We're here to make sure everyone at Pitt has what they need to find their own."