By Kristy Volmert | Staff Writer
AI Week is set to bring discussions to campus on the limits, possibilities and responsible uses of artificial intelligence.
Hosted by the Office of the Provost and Rogers College of Engineering and Computer Science, the events will take place Monday through Wednesday in Foster 250. All sessions are free and open for all students.
As AI becomes a staple in many aspects of everyday life, it is developing abilities beyond what many ever imagined computers could do. Because of this, some worry that it will “take over the world.” A Forbes Magazine article refers to this universal fear as ‘the doom loop’—the paranoia amongst employees that AI will take over their job.
However, it’s not the AI technologies that develop these abilities for themselves — It’s the human minds behind them. And these human minds have the ability to feel, experience, live and be creative, things that anything born by programming will never be able to do.
As AI is a relatively new technology and remains unfamiliar to most people, anxiety and nervousness are bound to surround it. However, the prevalence and necessity of AI in the workforce is steadily increasing, and is predicted to continue in that direction in the next decade.
College students should be aware of its benefits and complications as well educated on how to use it both ethically and strategically, according Dr. Robert Marks, distinguished professor of electrical & computer engineering.
Marks is one of four speakers that will share presentations throughout the week. He will discuss the limitations of AI’s potential, explaining where we must draw the line in attributing abilities to these technologies.
“AI is like a toddler with a Ph.D.,” Marks said. “It’s really smart, but it still needs to be supervised.”
AI is going to stay this way no matter how much we develop it, and giving it the ruling authority of a human leader is an absolute dead end, Marks said.
Another article by Forbes Magazine depicted the hypothetical situation of an AI taking the role of an authoritative figure as vital as the president. The article validates the possibility of this fantasy, even offering a list of benefits. The important line to draw on this subject, he believes, is to define the limits of where AI can even replace a human role. Can AI perform work that meets or even potentially exceeds human ability?
According to Marks, the answer lies in “human exceptionalism.”
“We are more than computers made out of meat. We have a soul, we have a spirit and we have a mind,” Marks said.
Human exceptionalism is our capacity to use these three traits to perform tasks in such ways that any nonhuman entity cannot, Marks said,.
“AI is going to replace jobs, there’s no doubt about it. But I think it’s going to create more opportunities that allow us greater freedom to do things we enjoy doing,” he said.
According to Marks, the idea of AI replacing a few roles is reality, but the paranoia of the doom loop is highly unnecessary. There are many benefits of AI, the main one being its ability to carry out simple every-day tasks that are burdens to us rather than productive tasks. AI is not poised to overtake any of the different creative passions of humans.
Marks said the assumptions of AI’s overpowering abilities as assumptions of atheism, and that as Christians believing in a higher power, these assumptions seem to negate the existence of God.
CEO of AI startup Worlds, Dr. David Copps, will speak on how to prepare for and adapt to AI’s rapid evolution in society. Dr. Collin Stultz, electrical and computer engineering professor at MIT, will speak about AI in healthcare. University of Binghamton’s Distinguished Teaching Professor and Vice Provost for Online and Innovation Education Dr. James Pitarresi will introduce the ethical and strategic use of AI within education.
Finally, the event will be wrapped up with a panel discussion including all four speakers, moderated by Dr. Daniel Pack, dean of the school of engineering and computer science.
“The technology is taking more and more of a role in what we do and how we interact and how we spend our time. Generative AI is one of those technologies that really disrupts the way we have been living,” Pack says. “This is an opportunity for our faculty, students and staff to learn more about AI technologies, what is coming over the horizon and what kind of things we can do today in preparation for that.”
