Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is the use of artificial intelligence to generate text, images, audio, videos, or other data. Generative AI uses large language models (LLMs) to learn the patterns and structure of their input training data and then generate new data that has similar characteristics. OpenAI launched ChatGPT in 2022, and in the following years other technology companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Meta have released their own generative AI chat tools, some built on proprietary LLMs.

The University has developed a generative AI service, PhoenixAI, which is available to all UChicago faculty, other academic appointees, postdoctoral researchers, students, and staff. It is built with the latest large language models (LLM) from OpenAI, and customized for the University community. The University also provides access to several services that include generative AI technology.