Harvard Students Put New Claude Access to Work as FAS Scales Back ChatGPT Edu

Harvard College students are using newly expanded access to Anthropic's Claude for coursework, extracurricular projects and personal tasks after the Faculty of Arts and Sciences began providing institutional access to the artificial intelligence platform over the summer, The Harvard Crimson reported Thursday.

The FAS announced in April that it would add Claude to its suite of available AI tools while scaling back access to ChatGPT Edu to a request-only basis. The change in availability for Harvard affiliates took effect over the summer, according to the Crimson, making this fall the first semester with FAS-sponsored Claude access.

Some students told the Crimson their preference for Claude reflects their views of the company behind it. "The only reason why I prefer Claude over other LLMs is because the CEO and staff of Anthropic didn't sign the deal with the Pentagon," said Sean "Brady" Merrill, a first-year student, referring to a dispute between Anthropic and the Department of Defense earlier this year over AI safety safeguards.

Conner M. Lewandowski, also a first-year, said he preferred Claude because he felt more aligned with Anthropic's leadership and values than with those of other AI companies. "If I'm going to be able to use these models, I'd rather support a company that has a vision for AI and morals that align with what I think is right," he said.

In some courses, use of the tool is built into the syllabus. The Crimson cited General Education 1201, "Foundations of NeuroAI: Synergies Between the Sciences of Natural and Artificial Intelligence," which integrates AI into assignments. "This specific Gen Ed is very good at teaching us how to use AI for studying because it integrates it into a lot of the assignments," said Iris A. Heikkinen, a sophomore.

A first-year seminar titled "Letting Claude Cook" requires students to use the tool for a class project. The seminar is taught by Douglas P. Finkbeiner, the FAS senior adviser on generative AI, who previously worked for Anthropic, according to the Crimson. Leonardo Miranda, a first-year in the seminar, said the course was his first use of the expanded credits. "There is no limit of how many credits you can use," Miranda said. "I've already used a lot of Harvard's money."

The Crimson's report did not include cost figures or usage totals.

Students described uses outside the classroom as well. Santiago D. Revilla, a first-year, said he built a website that pulls in his Google Calendar and displays the weather forecast for each day so he can plan walks and runs. Merrill said he has used the tool to help build models for a racing boat club he belongs to.

Ankit Biswas, a first-year and research fellow at the Cambridge Boston Align Initiative, said the tool has made his work more efficient. "It is very convenient workflow for me to simply tell Claude that 'Here, I have this idea; scaffold that idea' and let Claude take care of the implementation," he said.

Biswas said he sees the expanded access as preparation for the workforce. "I think we are moving increasingly towards a future where these tools will be ubiquitous," he said. "Everyone will be using them, and I think our college needs to prepare students for a future like that." He added: "It is broadly good that Harvard is expanding access to those tools."

The switch had roots in a disappointing pilot. When the plan surfaced in April, Christopher W. Stubbs, a physics professor identified at the time as the FAS senior adviser on artificial intelligence, told the Crimson the school was winding down a program that underwrote OpenAI enterprise accounts for all affiliates, citing financial considerations and low student uptake. "The uptake among undergraduates was far less than we anticipated," Stubbs said, attributing it to what he called unfounded student worries that the accounts were a way to catch cheating. "It was really an attempt to have equity of access across the student population," he said.

After June 2026, according to the FAS website as cited by the Crimson in April, ChatGPT Edu access requires administrative and budgetary approval. Google's Gemini remains available to affiliates through an existing institutional agreement between Google and Harvard. An FAS spokesperson, James M. Chisholm, said in April that affiliates should not expect a long-term commitment to a single platform. "This is going to be something that is continually evaluated by the FAS," he said.