Marc Watkins directs the AI Institute for Teachers and is an Assistant Director of Academic Innovation at the University of Mississippi, where he is a Lecturer in Writing and Rhetoric. He has led research initiatives, exploring generative AI’s impact on student learning, training workshops for faculty on AI literacy, and several institution-wide AI institutes. His work with generative AI in education predates ChatGPT and he advocates approaching the technology’s integration in education with curious skepticism.

When training faculty in applied artificial intelligence, he believes educators should be equally supported if they choose to work with AI or include friction to curb AI’s influence on student learning. His work with training faculty in AI literacy has been profiled in The Washington Post. He regularly writes about AI and education in The Chronicle for Higher Education and on his Substack Rhetorica.