  The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) and the expanding
integration of large language models (LLMs) have ignited a debate about their
application in education. This study delves into university instructors'
experiences and attitudes toward AI language models, filling a gap in the
literature by analyzing educators' perspectives on AI's role in the classroom
and its potential impacts on teaching and learning. The objective of this
research is to investigate the level of awareness, overall sentiment
towardsadoption, and the factors influencing these attitudes for LLMs and
generative AI-based tools in higher education. Data was collected through a
survey using a Likert scale, which was complemented by follow-up interviews to
gain a more nuanced understanding of the instructors' viewpoints. The collected
data was processed using statistical and thematic analysis techniques. Our
findings reveal that educators are increasingly aware of and generally positive
towards these tools. We find no correlation between teaching style and attitude
toward generative AI. Finally, while CS educators show far more confidence in
their technical understanding of generative AI tools and more positivity
towards them than educators in other fields, they show no more confidence in
their ability to detect AI-generated work.
