Planet Texas 2050 artist fellow Juliet Whitsett makes Texas’s most vulnerable species her muses.

A new collaborative, DOE-funded initiative on future flood- and air pollution-risk planning in the Beaumont-Port Arthur region is putting local residents at the heart of its research approach through a design process that, researchers believe, will result in a final product that better serves the people who need it most.

“Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a science and a set of computational technologies that are inspired by — but typically operate quite differently from — the ways people use their nervous systems and bodies to sense, learn, reason, and take action.”

On Earth Day, community members in Del Valle teamed up with The University of Texas at Austin’s Whole Communities–Whole Health researchers to plant some seeds, both literally and figuratively.

While a lot of attention has been focused on ChatGPT, which allows a user to input information and get a response, UT researchers are working on several other ways A.I. can be used in schools.

“For the moment, I see [AI-generated images] very similar to sketching,” says Andrew Kudless, founder of Matsys. Kudless’ AI “sketch” perhaps recalls a veiled version of Marlon Blackwell’s Keenan TowerHouse (Fayetteville, Arkansas, 2000). As Kudless reminds us, “Design is about so much more than sketching; it’s more than coming up with an idea.” AI-generated images are not particularly useful as resolved design concepts. Instead, as collections, they start to elucidate a feeling, a vibe, a possibility. - image by Andrew Kudless

Artificial intelligence systems are permeating into everyday life faster than ever before. That's why thousands of researchers who develop AI recently wrote an open letter pleading for help regulating the very technology they're creating. But can AI be regulated? Peter Stone, professor of computer science and Good Systems founding member, and Stuart Russell, professor of computer science at UC Berkeley, weigh in.

Sean Upshaw is a public health communications expert from the Moody College of Communication who is primarily focused on exploring the what, how, and why underserved populations in the U.S. engage with health messages. He is also presenting at this year’s Whole Communities—Whole Health Research Showcase. Here he talks about his work on the messaging around COVID-19 vaccine uptake among African Americans. 

“The others are coming. They are coming to get us, take over our country, colonize us, and replace us. They’re an existential threat.” These types of racist logics are a regular trope around the world. Some governments incorporate this type of messaging into disinformation campaigns, which have ripple effects of unintentional misinformation on social media.

The Whole Communities-Whole Health Research Workshop keynote speaker for 2023 is Helen F. Pettit Professor of Nursing at Columbia University School of Nursing, Jacquelyn Taylor. Her pioneering, interdisciplinary research expertise straddles nursing, physiology, medicine, genetics, and social science and we are delighted to welcome her to UT Austin.