Fall 2025 Semester in Review

Arizona State University announced an expansion of its collaboration with OpenAI, bringing ChatGPT Edu with GPT-5 to every student, faculty member, researcher and staff member at no cost to the individual. The expanded collaboration focuses on scaling AI innovations to advance student success, accelerate research and transform collaboration across the university enterprise.
 

At Arizona State University, learning is not only for students. Teams at ASU Enterprise Technology are continuously upskilling, too, and the AI Essentials Training Program is one of the latest opportunities available. The professional development initiative is designed to build AI literacy and spark innovation across teams, regardless of prior experience with AI. The two-hour training program offers an in-depth review of CreateAI, an AI toolkit built by ASU, for ASU. Teams also work together to build their own custom AI experience using CreateAI Builder, which rivals industry-leading models.

When Danielle McNamara describes the power of AI in education, she lights up. “The key affordance of generative AI,” she says, “is that it allows instructors, faculty and staff to be in the driver’s seat to create their own tools that solve their own problems.” As executive director of the Learning Engineering Institute (LEI) at Arizona State University, McNamara is turning that vision into action through the Principled Innovation Grant Program, which supports faculty-led projects using AI to transform teaching and learning.

Whether it's foundational amenities like connecting to the campus internet or experiencing the core memory of having your work displayed on the jumbotron at ASU’s Welcome Night, technology plays a key role in the Sun Devil experience. And teams at ASU Enterprise Technology take pride in delivering top-tier digital resources and experiences for all Sun Devils. 

From student entrepreneurs to post-grad start-up founders, ASU Venture Devils has successfully supported multiple AI-leveraged ventures that continue to succeed today. ASU Venture Devils is part of the J. Orin Edson Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute within ASU’s Knowledge Enterprise. The program offers current ASU and Maricopa Community College students a full suite of resources to support entrepreneurial success. Students can submit their venture idea, and once their venture is accepted, they receive access to networking opportunities and mentorships with university and industry leaders.

Imagine a mobile app that could show students 3D models of chemical compounds, providing them with a new AI-assisted tutoring tool for their chemistry classes; or a virtual coach that could tell students all about scholarship organizations, materials needed for applications and whether they’d be a good candidate. These are the student ideas floating around the AI Scholar Program at ASU.

NVIDIA has begun delivering its highly anticipated NVIDIA DGX Spark to AI developers worldwide, providing Arizona State University (ASU) with two of the world’s smallest AI supercomputers. This marks yet another milestone in the university’s AI journey, which includes advancing its longstanding partnership with AWS and being named the first university to collaborate with OpenAI. “Recognized as the most innovative university in the nation for over a decade, ASU continues to push the boundaries of AI,” said ASU Chief Information Officer Lev Gonick, who was among the first in the world to receive a special delivery of an NVIDIA DGX™ Spark. 

At the three-day Agentic AI and the Student Experience event, ASU and Microsoft announced they will work together to bring Xbox Game Camp to Phoenix. Xbox Game Camp is a multi-week program that empowers future waves of game creators, storytellers and studios to realize their potential in the gaming industry and grow thriving game development communities around the world. Founded in 2020, Xbox Game Camp has been hosted in countries around the world, including the United States, Ukraine, Sweden, Korea and more.

From October 22-24, over 600 education and industry leaders from around the world convened in Tempe for Agentic AI and the Student Experience, a three‑day event exploring how next‑generation AI transforms higher education, student agency and workforce readiness. “We designed this convening not just to explore the capabilities of AI, but to shape its direction with equity, purpose and students at the center,” said Lev Gonick, ASU’s Chief Information Officer.

Innovation, agency and the inalienable right to learn: these are the key themes driving day two of ASU’s Agentic AI and the Student Experience. ASU President Michael M. Crow delivered the opening keynote speech – addressing access, adaptability and AI across higher education. “You have a right to learn whatever you want to learn,” Crow said during his opening remarks. “You have a right to learn the way that you want to learn, the right to learn in the way that your intelligence works, your right to learn the way your mind works to achieve these things that you want to achieve.”