Higher Learning Commission

Accreditation is built on peer review, and HLC’s expert volunteers play an essential role in assuring the quality of institutions. As such, HLC has expectations on the use of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and Google Bard for any peer review or decision-making activities.  

Generative AI tools are software, services and applications that, based on user input, can create text, images, videos and even programming code. While these tools can be powerful assistants, they can also inadvertently expose private and proprietary information to unintended audiences.   

HLC recently notified peer reviewers to keep the following guidelines in mind when conducting any activity on behalf of HLC:  

1. Any use of generative AI tools must be consistent with all HLC policies for peer reviewers, including the Standards of Conduct.    

2. It is the responsibility of the persons using the tools to ensure any resulting work product is high-quality, accurate and does not infringe on any third-party intellectual property rights.  

3. Peer reviewers may not input content provided by institutions (e.g., Assurance Arguments, supporting evidence, web text or other institutional information) into any generative AI tool.  Generative AI tools use content from users to “train” themselves, and any content entered can be unintentionally exposed elsewhere or even used by other entities as a result. Utilizing institutional information in this manner is not aligned with the confidentiality expectations in the Standards of Conduct.    

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