USD students, faculty, and staff have access to:
The university has established specific training resources through its AI Training @ USD program, which provides both general and university-specific educational materials for users learning to navigate these new tools
Important notice: students' use of AI tools for academic work must be in compliance with the USD's Academic Integrity policy and the syllabus policy as outlined by their instructor.
What are guardrails and what does it mean to "train a model?" This LibTech blog post defines some of the common terms surrounding generative AI.
This tracker identifies the various civil litigation rules and procedures impacted by the recent explosion of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools available to and used by litigators and courts across the country. Specifically, this tracker notes the individual rules and standing orders implemented by certain federal and state court judges, court administrations, and bar associations governing the use of generative AI in court filings.
Are other schools using generative AI tools?
AI has been around in education for quite some time (Turnitin, Grammarly, IBM Watson), but the generative AI/large language models we're talking about here like OpenAI’s ChatGPT 5.0, as well as Anthropic's Claude and Google's Gemini, have charted a drastically different path. Initially, some schools and universities chose to ban ChatGPT and AI tools outright, either by banning them on school networks and devices, or instituting AI detection programs. By 2025 however, many schools, changed tactics from avoidance to education, providing students access to AI tools to increase AI literacy. Inside Higher Ed's 2025 Survey of Campus Chief Technology/Information noted that 27 percent of CTOs said their college offered students AI access through an institution wide license, with public nonprofit CTOs especially likely (42 percent). Although roughly half of all the institutions represented in the study did not offer students access to gen AI tools, 36 percent of those were in the process of considering ways to offer access. USD students, faculty, and staff have access to Gemini, Google's AI assistant, as well as NotebookLM, an AI-powered research assistant. The university has established specific training resources through its AI Training @ USD program, which provides both general and university-specific educational materials for users learning to navigate these new tools
Are law faculty using it?
Yes, faculty across law schools are using ChatGPT and other generative AI tools to write their syllabus, create slides, design learning outcomes, suggest hypotheticals, and even for grading rubrics. Of course you want to be sure to add greater context, nuance, alignment with your course concepts and learning objectives, etc. rather than relying solely on AI generated material. If you choose to use it, do acknowledge your use of generative AI every time, e.g. “ChatGPT helped with the creation of this syllabus." Some faculty are incorporating generative AI programs into their faculty scholarship workflow. There are a lot of tools designed for proofreading and grammar checking, but some of the more prominent ones are Grammarly, QuillBot, and ProWritingAid. Write.law has also designed a course for GPT for Legal Writers for a small fee.
Are law students using it?
As early as mid-2023 ChatGPT-4 was able to pass the bar exam and the MPRE. Not only could it pass the bar, but it passed it well, scoring in the top 10% of test takers. So presumably, some law students are using ChatGPT in an attempt to get a better grade on exams. Students have also used generative AI to write an outline for an essay, write an essay, create references/citations list, summarize text, and create slide decks. But ChatGPT is better at some of these tasks than others. And not everyone is jumping on the bandwagon. Students may have several reasons for their reservations: inadvertently running afoul of their school's honor code, concern about the accuracy and validity of research, and concern that it might diminish their capacity to learn traditional legal research skills. On law school exams, early versions of ChatGPT produced varying results, somewhere between a B and a C. However later models fared significantly better. By early 2025, ChatGPTs newest model at the time, called o3, earned grades ranging from A+ to B on eight spring finals given by faculty at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law.