Focus Forward conference looks at the potential benefits and downfalls of artificial intelligence
Mar. 27—MORGANTOWN — West Virginians walk around with powerful computers in the palms of their hands every day. Students use ChatGPT to help them write papers. People of all ages tell Alexa to play some music or find them a restaurant.
Getting a handle on the digital world — particularly artificial intelligence and cybersecurity — was the focus of the seventh annual Focus Forward symposium, held Wednesday and organized by the West Virginia Public Education Collaborative and the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation.
The topic was West Virginia's Digital Destiny.
Kimberly Williams, director of Strategic Engagement for Amazon Web Services, kicked off the discussion of artificial intelligence — AI — in her talk, Future Proofing a Digital, Automated West Virginia.
"We create our own destiny, " she said. "You can't write your own destiny if you don't know where you want to go." The fuel of the next industrial revolution won't be mechanical, it will be digital, she said.
Under the umbrella of AI, she explained, are machine learning where algorithms help machines learn and adapt ; and deep learning where computers use layers of neural networks to simulate human thinking. And beyond that is generative AI — such as ChatGPT — that uses deep learning to generate text, images and code, without instruction, using supervised and unsupervised learning.
Generative AI has changed AI from theory to practical reality, she said. It could add anywhere from $2.4 trillion to $7 trillion annually to the global economy, based on various predictions. Some say 80 % of all jobs will be impacted ; it will increase productivity and take some jobs, but it will create others.
"The reality for government and education is one we should be excited about, " she said. But AI has to be guided by human-based principles, including digital trust and digital equity. Digital equity means everyone has the information technology capacity needed for full participation in our society, democracy and economy.
After lunch, a panel discussion probed "The Future of AI: Implications for Industries, Workforce and Education."
Erika Klose, director of the Office of PK-12 Academic Support for the West Virginia Department of Education, said the state's K-12 education system was not prepared for the wave of innovation and the department decided they needed to get ahead of it. In January they released a 40-page AI guidance manual.
It is student-centered, she said, for students to understand what AI is and how to use it, to enforce academic integrity and help them balance risk and opportunity.
The manual itself says this: "The increasing use of AI in education, notably with the advent of generative AI technologies like ChatGPT, Bard, and Copilot has brought significant changes in how educators, students, and families interact with technology. These advancements, while offering transformative potential, also necessitate careful decision-making by schools and districts."
Illah Nourbakhsh, robotics professor at Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute, explained that AI needs human tempering. We need future engineers who invent AI to consider the social ramifications, he said: Are they making life better ? Economic sectors will need people, but people will need to interact with AI. Engineers should not create AI to replace people, but rather AI that people can work with—AI that not only increases productivity but creates better quality of life.
At the institute, robotics students receive instruction in character-based ethics to maintain an element of human empathy in their work products.
Panelists also noted that the quality of what comes out of AI depends on what goes into it. Students can misuse ChatGPT, for instance. An example was a student who fed his paper into the program and just said, "Improve my writing." He turned it in without reviewing in and the professor showed him what the program spewed out: incoherent nonsense.
Email: dbeard @dominionpost.com
