The University of Copenhagen will allocate 110 million DKK, around €14.7 million, to artificial intelligence over the coming years, as the university seeks to integrate the technology into teaching, research and administration while studying its wider effects on society. The initiative, announced on Thursday, also includes the creation of a new senior position dedicated specifically to AI.
From 1 September, professor Morten Axel Pedersen will become Deputy Prorector for AI (viceprorektor for AI) for an initial three-year period. He will lead the coordination of AI initiatives across the university and report directly to Rector David Dreyer Lassen.
The University of Copenhagen AI investment will cover teaching and research
The DKK 110 million programme is organised around two strategic missions, “AI at UCPH” and “UCPH with AI”.
The first concerns how artificial intelligence should be used within the university itself. This includes research, doctoral education, teaching and examinations, staff and student training, and administrative processes.
The university plans to establish three AI labs supporting researchers, as well as an AI office and task force. It will also develop shared infrastructure and platforms giving researchers access to AI models and computing capacity.
Concrete tools are expected to include a generative university AI assistant, transcription services and an “AI traffic light” designed to guide staff and students on when particular uses of artificial intelligence comply with university rules and legal requirements.
The university says students should learn both how to use AI within their disciplines and how to recognise situations in which the technology is unsuitable.
A new Deputy Prorector will coordinate the transition
Pedersen’s position is part of a new organisational structure expected to operate for three years. After that period, the university expects the initiatives to have become integrated into its ordinary activities.
“AI will become an omnipresent part of everyday life and working life, whether you like it or not,” Pedersen said in the university’s announcement.
His role will focus on creating the framework for the transition, while individual academic disciplines will remain responsible for deciding when and how AI should be used.
The approach also leaves room for deciding when artificial intelligence should explicitly not be used, particularly where it does not support learning, academic development or the objectives of a particular research method.
Copenhagen also wants to study AI’s effects on society
The second part of the initiative looks beyond the university’s internal use of artificial intelligence.
The University of Copenhagen wants to strengthen research into how AI is changing society and the labour market, including its implications for education, skills and the ways knowledge is verified and certified.
Research will also address issues including digital sovereignty, regulation, ethics and the climate impact of AI.
The initiative builds on existing artificial intelligence research at the university, including work carried out through the Pioneer Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Denmark’s National Centre for AI in Society (CAISA).
For the University of Copenhagen, the investment reflects a broader change in the role universities may play as generative AI makes the production of information and text increasingly accessible. The institution argues that independent expertise, critical assessment and the verification of knowledge will therefore become increasingly important alongside the adoption of the technology itself.
