Q: There have been many exciting announcements about Artificial Intelligence (AI) initiatives on campus. What are UAlbany’s ultimate AI ambitions?
A: Our goal is to be a national and international leader in AI academic, research and workforce development. We are developing new academic microcredentials, certificates, minors and majors around AI — all building toward providing UAlbany students a competitive edge in future careers and job markets. We want to build a foundation for UAlbany students to be the global leaders in this rapidly growing area of knowledge that spans all disciplines.
As one of the most diverse public R1 universities in the nation, we also have the opportunity to be a pipeline for a diverse AI workforce, which is essential to ensuring that next-generation AI systems and applications reflect the diversity of the communities we live in. Diversity of disciplines and interdisciplinary collaboration are essential in AI, but the racial/ethnic, social and economic and gender diversity of the workforce will also be pivotal in developing AI systems that we can trust.
Q: Can you share examples of how the University’s signature strengths might be bolstered by these AI initiatives?
A: UAlbany’s signature strengths already leverage interdisciplinary research occurring across our campus. Each of these disciplines is strengthened by overlaying elements of teaching and research in AI. In the atmospheric sciences, for example, researchers are using AI to analyze vast datasets from the NYS Mesonet and other sources to build forecasting models that are more reliable and could lead to better, more timely severe weather warnings. In the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center, researchers are using machine learning models to predict power outages during storms — a line of work with tremendous overlap with colleagues in emergency preparedness, who also use AI for emergency simulations and predictive analytics.
In cybersecurity, researchers are using AI to find system weaknesses and identify solutions to better secure our data, while our health sciences colleagues are using AI to develop models to predict public health outcomes for things like changes to firearms policy. And, of course, UAlbany’s public policy experts are leading critical conversations about how to effectively inform the public about emerging issues surrounding AI, including the role of government.
Q: What is different about UAlbany’s approach to AI, and how will it play out across the University?
A: Unlike other universities, we are not concentrating our efforts only in STEM. Instead, we are building a truly cross-disciplinary initiative by integrating AI across UAlbany’s entire academic enterprise. Whether a student is studying art and art history, public policy or engineering, they will have access to microcredentials, certificates, minors and majors in AI. We currently have a committee developing our initial AI course offerings, leveraging existing courses and new, discipline-specific courses for every field.
AI touches virtually every aspect of modern life — from opening your phone with facial recognition to shopping on Amazon or asking your smart speaker a question. And that impact will only grow in the future. UAlbany’s AI curriculum will not only prepare our students for careers and graduate programs in which a foundational and applied knowledge of AI is essential but for a modern life in which this technology is ubiquitous.
"[At UAlbany], we are building a truly cross-disciplinary initiative by integrating AI across UAlbany’s entire academic enterprise."
Q: A criticism of AI is that the tremendous datasets required are, sometimes, tainted with bias which can lead to serious discriminatory outcomes. How will the University address the ethics of AI?
A: This is why UAlbany has such an important role to play in the development of this technology and the workforce that will use it. To reduce the bias in AI systems, we must ensure the workforce that builds those systems represents the full diversity of our society. As one of the most diverse public research institutions in the nation, UAlbany is uniquely positioned to supply an AI-savvy workforce whose diversity of life experiences more closely resembles that of the state and nation. We have heard over and over from industry leaders that a more diverse workforce is essential for innovation. UAlbany was recently awarded $2.5 million by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to pioneer more inclusive approaches to teaching STEM in hopes of increasing retention and graduation rates among underrepresented students. Our leadership in this area positions us to be an important player in this work — in New York and beyond.
Another important step is ensuring that we’re involved not just in the research developing the latest AI systems but in exploring the challenging questions about where, why and how they should — and should not — be used. Faculty in our Philosophy Department, for example, are working with colleagues in tech to tackle these very questions, and that’s why we’re determined that Albany AI span the University’s entire academic enterprise.
Q: AI is being used to generate everything from artistic selfies to incredibly convincing student essays. What has been the most striking example of AI’s abilities that you’ve seen? And what are your feelings for the AI future?
A: Certainly the development of ChatGPT and similar applications was a jolt to academia. It’s forced us to rethink our approaches to certain assignments. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. There are two ways you can think about applications like ChatGPT: first, as a threat to some conventional teaching methods, or second, as a useful opportunity to question whether our current approaches are really the best ways to assess learning.
Surely, ChatGPT will make some aspects of instruction more challenging. But if in the end it also inspires us to innovate new and more effective approaches to reinforcing key concepts and assessing students’ mastery of them, then that will benefit all future UAlbany students. Sometimes we need to be jolted to innovate. As with most new technologies, there will be positives and negatives. One of the great things about being at a research institution like UAlbany is that we’re constantly asking ourselves some version of this key question: “What can we learn from this?”
