HU Awarded $125,000 Grant from Lilly Endowment for Artificial Intelligence Exploration
Planning grant helps HU explore how artificial intelligence can transform teaching, learning and career preparation
HUNTINGTON, Ind. — Huntington University has been awarded a $125,000 planning grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to explore opportunities for how HU can best utilize artificial intelligence (AI) in the future.
The funds are enabling the University to consider the challenges and opportunities related to AI, plan initiatives to address those challenges and opportunities and prepare a proposal for an implementation grant opportunity Lilly Endowment is making available. The planning grant’s funding will span the calendar year of 2026.
The University received the planning grant through Lilly Endowment’s Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education initiative, which aims to support Indiana colleges and universities in their ongoing efforts to address the implications of a rapidly evolving technology in their institutions and the lives of their students.
Dr. Becky Benjamin, professor of psychology, is playing a key role for the University in the planning process for the funding. Benjamin knows that AI provides an avenue to expand both teaching and learning and is excited to see what the University can accomplish through the grant opportunity.
“We all know that AI technologies have reached a level of sophistication in recent years that have allowed them to significantly impact all of our lives,” Benjamin said. “For some time that impact was more behind the scenes — but since the release of public-facing large language model chatbots in late 2022, the impact has exploded. Both business and education have experienced significant ramifications from this technology. Thus, this grant plays a critical role in helping us continue to adapt in ways that ensure our students and graduates are prepared to thrive and serve effectively in our world.”
Benjamin noted some of the funding will go toward hiring faculty to cover some of her teaching load, which will give her the necessary time to devote to working with teams and individuals involved in determining and planning HU’s strategy. Other funds will be dedicated to engaging consultants, training key stakeholders at the University and participating in relevant conferences. HU has also agreed to devote some funds to collaborating with regional partners that may be part of the University’s application for additional Lilly Endowment funding.
Although some view AI as a negative impact on society, Benjamin sees AI as a way to deepen the impact people can have for God’s kingdom.
“Modern Artificial Intelligence has a 75-year history,” Benjamin said. “It has taken a while for it to progress to a level where it can reasonably be used as a substitute for much human output in the real world, but clearly it has reached that level in many domains. As a Christian institution of higher education, we believe that human beings are created in the image of God and have unique purpose in creation. We know that technologies shape us, and they can be used in ways that foster either flourishing or decline. We need to understand the technologies that are influential in our societies and discern if and how they can be used to promote the flourishing of people and all of God's creation. More narrowly, our students have these technologies available to them, and they will be a part of the lives and workplaces that our students enter as they graduate. In our calling to prepare students to engage wisely with their professions, relationships and communities, we need to help them understand when and how AI should play a role in that engagement. We also want to understand better how AI can be used at our institution to develop more efficient systems that allow our people to spend more time on the creative and relational work that they are so gifted in.”
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- Dr. Becky Benjamin, professor of psychology, will serve as a key leader in Huntington University’s planning for the $125,000 grant from Lilly Endowment Inc.
