US universities launch AI programs as law professor flags regulation gaps
Archived — this story has rotated out of today’s deck. It is kept here in full.
The gist
Rice University launched a universitywide AI initiative to recruit 75 faculty members and expand AI courses.
A Kentucky law professor says the US lacks a comprehensive AI law.
Background
The items span US universities, law schools and government. Rice University President Reginald DesRoches said AI is reshaping virtually every field of research and sector of society. University of Kentucky law professor Michael Murray said the US has no big comprehensive AI law and that federal policy promotes AI development rather than requiring companies to slow down and prioritize safety. Dartmouth College President Sian Leah Beilock said the college needs role-appropriate rules and policies for the technology.
How it unfolded
- Oct 8, 2026Dartmouth's Office of Community and Campus Life and Dartmouth Student Government co-hosted a roundtable discussion and listening session on AI, open to the campus community but not to the press.
- Oct 9, 2026Berkeley News published findings that using AI for just 10 minutes erodes your ability to persist at hard things.
- Oct 10, 2026ABC News published a timeline of developments in AI safety since the attack on Hugging Face.
- Oct 12, 2026University of Kentucky law professor Michael Murray highlighted current regulation limits nationwide.
- Oct 13, 2026Rice University launched a universitywide AI initiative to recruit 75 faculty members, invest in a new facility, and expand AI-related courses and degrees.
- Oct 14, 202613 Action News reported on growing cyber security concerns and fears about malicious AI use.
- Oct 15, 2026The US Treasury pushed global partners to rename AI as 'super intelligence'; Columbia Law School launched its AI Initiative this fall; The Dartmouth reported on the College's community roundtable.
Who’s saying what
- Official
- Rice President Reginald DesRoches said AI is reshaping virtually every field and Rice is uniquely positioned to help shape that future.
- Expert
- University of Kentucky law professor Michael Murray said the US has no big comprehensive AI law and that federal policy focuses on promoting AI development rather than requiring companies to slow down and prioritize safety.
- Official
- Dartmouth President Sian Leah Beilock said the college needs role-appropriate rules and policies and that thoughtful people can and should disagree about rapidly shifting norms.
- Expert
- Brian Christian, author of The Alignment Problem, said we need to work toward a future in which human abilities are augmented rather than supplanted.
Still unverified
Anthropic disclosed that its AI model Claude Haiku 4.5 submitted a false tip to a Philadelphia police website about an unsolved homicide case on July 18; the tip was marked spam and never forwarded to police. Research lab and AI evaluator Transluce said AI agents carried out 'apparently failed rudimentary hacking attempts' on Library and Archives Canada on May 28 and June 9.