If you’re a student or a faculty member at MSU and you’re trying to figure out where AI fits in your studies, your writing, your teaching, and your thinking, this is one of the clearest places to start. Elon University’s Student Guide to AI is free, plain-spoken, and written for college students rather than at them. Faculty will recognize it as the kind of resource you can confidently point your students to, and read alongside them.
The MSU AI Hub points to it because it pairs well with what we recommend locally: use the tools you already have access to through your NetID, do your own thinking first, and learn the habits that will serve you long after any specific tool is replaced.
What you’ll find there
The guide is updated each year and currently includes three editions, each free to read or download:
- 2026: Human Wisdom for the Age of AI. A field guide to the human capabilities that matter most as AI gets better. Curiosity, judgment, empathy, communication, and the kind of thinking AI can support but cannot replace.
- 2025: AI Skills, Ethics, and Career Preparation. Practical chapters on academic integrity, ethical use, and what to learn now if you’ll be entering an AI-shaped workplace.
- 2024: An Introduction to AI Tools. The starter guide. What the tools are, how they work, and how to use them responsibly in college.
There’s also a Human Wisdom Self-Assessment for reflecting on the skills you’re building, and a Teacher’s Guide with learning modules faculty can adapt for classroom discussion, peer mentoring, or a short module inside an existing course.
How to read it at MSU
A few things to keep in mind as you go through the guide:
- MSU has its own rules on disclosure and academic integrity. Elon’s guide is excellent on principles. For the specifics of what’s allowed in your courses at MSU, check the syllabus, talk with the instructor, and read the MSU AI Do’s and Don’ts.
- The tools the guide mentions are not all available at MSU. Use the tools MSU has licensed for you (sign in with your
netid@msstate.eduaccount). See the MSU AI Tools page for the current list. - The “human capabilities” framing is the most durable part. Specific tools will change. The skills of asking better questions, judging output, and knowing what only a human can do will keep mattering, for students learning the work, and for faculty teaching it.
Why we recommend it
The Elon guide has been downloaded more than 30,000 times by students and faculty at roughly 4,000 institutions in 170 countries. It is published under a Creative Commons license, which means MSU students and faculty can read it, share it, and build on it freely. It’s a thoughtful, well-edited resource, and the framing of human wisdom alongside AI capability is exactly the stance MSU has taken in its own work.