# Who Drafted UA's AI Statement? > University of Alaska regents, your AI statement should have printed its credit line from the first draft. Published 2026-11-08 by Alaska AI. 9 slides. Canonical: https://alaskaaihq.com/archive/2026-11-08/ ## The story Who drafted UA's AI statement? Claude wrote the first draft, two UAA professors say. Gregory Hartley and Joel Potter wrote that Anthropic's Claude "generated the initial draft," a fact "concealed for months" until October 9th. They want the regents to "abandon the document." Five faculty answer it was no secret. "Anyone who met with administrators and board members knew how the original draft was constructed," they wrote. Adding "a small AI attribution" later was, in their words, "a good move." Who said what happened when. What the page would set. Its stated intent, as Hartley and Potter quote it, is to "embrace artificial intelligence as a strategic enabler." Against the light, the mark was always in the paper. Both can be true. That's the problem. People who met with administrators knew. The attribution on the page came later, a small one, by the rebuttal's own account. Known in the room is not disclosed in public. A mark only insiders can see is a watermark. Print the credit line on the first draft. On the page, where readers read it, from the first public draft. Hartley and Potter call the disclosure "too late." The five faculty call the attribution "a good move." Both treat it as owed. Should every public document say who, or what, drafted it? ## What we verified - Hartley and Potter wrote that the University of Alaska Board of Regents would vote on November 5th on its AI statement. [Anchorage Daily News (opinion, Gregory Hartley and Joel Potter)](https://www.adn.com/opinions/2026/11/03/opinion-who-wrote-uas-ai-plan-a-chatbot-did/), primary document, 2026-11-04. - Hartley and Potter quote the statement as saying the Board of Regents declares its intent for the University of Alaska to embrace artificial intelligence as a strategic enabler of student success, institutional effectiveness, and Alaska's global leadership in arctic and climate science. [Anchorage Daily News (opinion, Gregory Hartley and Joel Potter)](https://www.adn.com/opinions/2026/11/03/opinion-who-wrote-uas-ai-plan-a-chatbot-did/), primary document, 2026-11-04. - Hartley and Potter wrote that the board commissioned a strategic document called AI Engaged in June 2026. [Anchorage Daily News (opinion, Gregory Hartley and Joel Potter)](https://www.adn.com/opinions/2026/11/03/opinion-who-wrote-uas-ai-plan-a-chatbot-did/), primary document, 2026-11-04. - Hartley and Potter wrote that Anthropic's Claude generated the initial draft of AI Engaged. [Anchorage Daily News (opinion, Gregory Hartley and Joel Potter)](https://www.adn.com/opinions/2026/11/03/opinion-who-wrote-uas-ai-plan-a-chatbot-did/), primary document, 2026-11-04. - Hartley and Potter wrote that the use of Claude was concealed for months until October 9th. [Anchorage Daily News (opinion, Gregory Hartley and Joel Potter)](https://www.adn.com/opinions/2026/11/03/opinion-who-wrote-uas-ai-plan-a-chatbot-did/), primary document, 2026-11-04. - Hartley and Potter wrote that the disclosure came too late and remains incomplete. [Anchorage Daily News (opinion, Gregory Hartley and Joel Potter)](https://www.adn.com/opinions/2026/11/03/opinion-who-wrote-uas-ai-plan-a-chatbot-did/), primary document, 2026-11-04. - Hartley and Potter wrote that studies have documented a pro-AI bias in outputs from Claude and other large language models. [Anchorage Daily News (opinion, Gregory Hartley and Joel Potter)](https://www.adn.com/opinions/2026/11/03/opinion-who-wrote-uas-ai-plan-a-chatbot-did/), primary document, 2026-11-04. - Gregory Hartley and Joel Potter are associate professors at the University of Alaska Anchorage. [Anchorage Daily News (opinion, Gregory Hartley and Joel Potter)](https://www.adn.com/opinions/2026/11/03/opinion-who-wrote-uas-ai-plan-a-chatbot-did/), primary document, 2026-11-04. - Hartley and Potter wrote that the regents should abandon the document and establish safeguards against undue influence from Big Tech. [Anchorage Daily News (opinion, Gregory Hartley and Joel Potter)](https://www.adn.com/opinions/2026/11/03/opinion-who-wrote-uas-ai-plan-a-chatbot-did/), primary document, 2026-11-04. - Hartley and Potter wrote that UA board members and administrative executives are not required to disclose financial holdings in education or technology companies. [Anchorage Daily News (opinion, Gregory Hartley and Joel Potter)](https://www.adn.com/opinions/2026/11/03/opinion-who-wrote-uas-ai-plan-a-chatbot-did/), primary document, 2026-11-04. - Hartley and Potter wrote that more members of the UA community should have been directly involved in drafting UA's AI plan. [Anchorage Daily News (opinion, Gregory Hartley and Joel Potter)](https://www.adn.com/opinions/2026/11/03/opinion-who-wrote-uas-ai-plan-a-chatbot-did/), primary document, 2026-11-04. - A rebuttal op-ed by five UA faculty members wrote that anyone who met with administrators and board members knew how the original draft was constructed. [Anchorage Daily News (opinion, Carroll, Cason, Ryan, Harnish and Trochim)](https://www.adn.com/opinions/2026/11/05/opinion-humans-not-robots-shaped-uas-approach-to-ai/), primary document, 2026-11-05. - The rebuttal authors wrote that AI use in drafting the statement was not concealed. [Anchorage Daily News (opinion, Carroll, Cason, Ryan, Harnish and Trochim)](https://www.adn.com/opinions/2026/11/05/opinion-humans-not-robots-shaped-uas-approach-to-ai/), primary document, 2026-11-05. - The rebuttal authors wrote that the regents were already pro-AI before the draft. [Anchorage Daily News (opinion, Carroll, Cason, Ryan, Harnish and Trochim)](https://www.adn.com/opinions/2026/11/05/opinion-humans-not-robots-shaped-uas-approach-to-ai/), primary document, 2026-11-05. - The rebuttal authors wrote that they would prefer the statement take a more neutral stance toward AI. [Anchorage Daily News (opinion, Carroll, Cason, Ryan, Harnish and Trochim)](https://www.adn.com/opinions/2026/11/05/opinion-humans-not-robots-shaped-uas-approach-to-ai/), primary document, 2026-11-05. - The rebuttal authors wrote that eventually adding a small AI attribution was a good move. [Anchorage Daily News (opinion, Carroll, Cason, Ryan, Harnish and Trochim)](https://www.adn.com/opinions/2026/11/05/opinion-humans-not-robots-shaped-uas-approach-to-ai/), primary document, 2026-11-05. - The rebuttal authors wrote that the work behind the statement began with a September 2025 AI symposium funded by the Faculty Alliance Faculty Initiative Fund. [Anchorage Daily News (opinion, Carroll, Cason, Ryan, Harnish and Trochim)](https://www.adn.com/opinions/2026/11/05/opinion-humans-not-robots-shaped-uas-approach-to-ai/), primary document, 2026-11-05. - The rebuttal authors wrote that the symposium produced the UA AI Coordinating Council. [Anchorage Daily News (opinion, Carroll, Cason, Ryan, Harnish and Trochim)](https://www.adn.com/opinions/2026/11/05/opinion-humans-not-robots-shaped-uas-approach-to-ai/), primary document, 2026-11-05. - James Ryan, one of the rebuttal authors, chairs the UA Statewide Advisory Committee and teaches writing at the University of Alaska Southeast. [Anchorage Daily News (opinion, Carroll, Cason, Ryan, Harnish and Trochim)](https://www.adn.com/opinions/2026/11/05/opinion-humans-not-robots-shaped-uas-approach-to-ai/), primary document, 2026-11-05. - The rebuttal authors wrote that UAF faculty member Jennifer Carroll and Chief Information Technology Officer Ben Shier gave a joint presentation to the regents in May. [Anchorage Daily News (opinion, Carroll, Cason, Ryan, Harnish and Trochim)](https://www.adn.com/opinions/2026/11/05/opinion-humans-not-robots-shaped-uas-approach-to-ai/), primary document, 2026-11-05. - The University of Alaska said its Board of Regents would meet in Fairbanks on the UAF campus from November 4th to 6th and consider new guidelines for AI use. [University of Alaska, news release via EIN Presswire](https://www.einpresswire.com/article/954337159/university-of-alaska-board-of-regents-to-continue-strategic-future-investments-at-november-board-meeting), primary document, 2026-11-03. - The University of Alaska said Chief Information Technology Officer Ben Shier would share the latest version of AI Engaged at the November meeting. [University of Alaska, news release via EIN Presswire](https://www.einpresswire.com/article/954337159/university-of-alaska-board-of-regents-to-continue-strategic-future-investments-at-november-board-meeting), primary document, 2026-11-03. - The University of Alaska said that in May the Board directed UA leadership to develop a cohesive strategy on artificial intelligence. [University of Alaska, news release via EIN Presswire](https://www.einpresswire.com/article/954337159/university-of-alaska-board-of-regents-to-continue-strategic-future-investments-at-november-board-meeting), primary document, 2026-11-03. - The University of Alaska said the AI statement establishes six guiding principles, four investment priorities and five system-wide expectations. [University of Alaska, news release via EIN Presswire](https://www.einpresswire.com/article/954337159/university-of-alaska-board-of-regents-to-continue-strategic-future-investments-at-november-board-meeting), primary document, 2026-11-03. - The University of Alaska said the statement preserves UAA, UAF and UAS responsibility for curriculum, academic integrity and faculty instructional judgment. [University of Alaska, news release via EIN Presswire](https://www.einpresswire.com/article/954337159/university-of-alaska-board-of-regents-to-continue-strategic-future-investments-at-november-board-meeting), primary document, 2026-11-03. - The University of Alaska said the final AI document incorporates feedback from students, faculty and staff across the system. [University of Alaska, news release via EIN Presswire](https://www.einpresswire.com/article/954337159/university-of-alaska-board-of-regents-to-continue-strategic-future-investments-at-november-board-meeting), primary document, 2026-11-03. - The University of Alaska Board of Regents is an 11-member volunteer board. [University of Alaska, news release via EIN Presswire](https://www.einpresswire.com/article/954337159/university-of-alaska-board-of-regents-to-continue-strategic-future-investments-at-november-board-meeting), primary document, 2026-11-03. - KTOO reported that the draft AI policy would require all three University of Alaska campuses to have an AI plan for students, faculty and staff. [KTOO (Jamie Diep)](https://www.ktoo.org/2026/09/16/university-of-alaska-regents-consider-draft-ai-policy/), report, 2026-09-16. - KTOO reported in September that university leadership planned to submit a finalized draft for approval at the November regents meeting. [KTOO (Jamie Diep)](https://www.ktoo.org/2026/09/16/university-of-alaska-regents-consider-draft-ai-policy/), report, 2026-09-16. - KTOO cited a 2025 Inside Higher Ed survey finding that about 85 percent of college students use generative AI in their coursework. [KTOO via Alaska Public Media (Jamie Diep)](https://alaskapublic.org/news/education/2026-09-18/university-of-alaska-regents-consider-draft-ai-policy), report, 2026-09-18. - ADN reported that of 150 UAA students cited for academic misconduct, 119 used AI, according to a Dean of Students Office report released in August. [Anchorage Daily News (Tim Rockey)](https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/education/2026/10/04/ai-policy-coming-to-university-of-alaska-as-student-misuse-increases/), report, 2026-10-04. - ADN reported that the AI cases accounted for 1.1 percent of the more than 10,500 students who attended UAA last semester. [Anchorage Daily News (Tim Rockey)](https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/education/2026/10/04/ai-policy-coming-to-university-of-alaska-as-student-misuse-increases/), report, 2026-10-04. - ADN reported that the UAA report showed a 73 percent increase in AI use for plagiarism last year and a 56 percent increase in academic misconduct overall. [Anchorage Daily News (Tim Rockey)](https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/education/2026/10/04/ai-policy-coming-to-university-of-alaska-as-student-misuse-increases/), report, 2026-10-04. - The UA system does not have a single policy governing AI use across more than a dozen campuses, ADN reported. [Anchorage Daily News (Tim Rockey)](https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/education/2026/10/04/ai-policy-coming-to-university-of-alaska-as-student-misuse-increases/), report, 2026-10-04. - ADN reported that the draft guiding principles call for appropriate AI in every discipline and say humans must remain in the loop. [Anchorage Daily News (Tim Rockey)](https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/education/2026/10/04/ai-policy-coming-to-university-of-alaska-as-student-misuse-increases/), report, 2026-10-04. - North of 60 Mining News reported that the UAF-led critical minerals engine was one of 12 teams chosen from 294 initial applications. [North of 60 Mining News (Shane Lasley)](https://www.miningnewsnorth.com/story/2026/10/30/news/industry-fuels-uaf-critical-minerals-engine/9933.html), report, 2026-10-28. - North of 60 Mining News reported that the NSF award provides $15 million over the first two years with the potential for another $145 million over the next decade. [North of 60 Mining News (Shane Lasley)](https://www.miningnewsnorth.com/story/2026/10/30/news/industry-fuels-uaf-critical-minerals-engine/9933.html), report, 2026-10-28. - North of 60 Mining News reported that the engine intends to advance AI-enabled technologies to accelerate mineral exploration. [North of 60 Mining News (Shane Lasley)](https://www.miningnewsnorth.com/story/2026/10/30/news/industry-fuels-uaf-critical-minerals-engine/9933.html), report, 2026-10-28. - North of 60 Mining News reported that Alaska hosts occurrences of 56 of the 60 minerals deemed critical to the United States. [North of 60 Mining News (Shane Lasley)](https://www.miningnewsnorth.com/story/2026/10/30/news/industry-fuels-uaf-critical-minerals-engine/9933.html), report, 2026-10-28. - North of 60 Mining News reported that the engine's network includes more than 50 partners, among them Teck Resources, operator of Red Dog. [North of 60 Mining News (Shane Lasley)](https://www.miningnewsnorth.com/story/2026/10/30/news/industry-fuels-uaf-critical-minerals-engine/9933.html), report, 2026-10-28. - Alaska Public Media reported that the Regulatory Commission of Alaska approved an exchange agreement among Enstar, Matanuska Electric Association and Hilcorp in late October. [Alaska Public Media (Ava White)](https://alaskapublic.org/news/anchorage/2026-11-06/enstar-secures-gas-deal-for-southcentral-as-winter-sets-in), report, 2026-11-06. - Alaska Public Media reported that the agreement allows Enstar to buy about 1.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas. [Alaska Public Media (Ava White)](https://alaskapublic.org/news/anchorage/2026-11-06/enstar-secures-gas-deal-for-southcentral-as-winter-sets-in), report, 2026-11-06. - Alaska Public Media reported that the deal boosts Enstar's year-end storage projection to about 5 billion cubic feet against a goal of 6 to 7 billion. [Alaska Public Media (Ava White)](https://alaskapublic.org/news/anchorage/2026-11-06/enstar-secures-gas-deal-for-southcentral-as-winter-sets-in), report, 2026-11-06. - Alaska Public Media reported that Enstar must deliver the equivalent gas back to MEA by March 2028. [Alaska Public Media (Ava White)](https://alaskapublic.org/news/anchorage/2026-11-06/enstar-secures-gas-deal-for-southcentral-as-winter-sets-in), report, 2026-11-06. - Alaska Public Media reported that MEA predicts the agreement will save its customers about $2 million between 2027 and 2029. [Alaska Public Media (Ava White)](https://alaskapublic.org/news/anchorage/2026-11-06/enstar-secures-gas-deal-for-southcentral-as-winter-sets-in), report, 2026-11-06. Slides and the deck PDF are linked from the canonical page.