Since the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in November 2022, artificial intelligence, or AI, usage has skyrocketed. As a new academic year rapidly approaches for The University of Texas at Austin, faculty are working to balance fostering a learning environment with AI while preventing cheating among college students.

The Department of Computer Science and the Good Systems program present a one semester-credit-hour course titled “Essentials of AI for Life and Society.”

Researchers at the University of Texas in Austin found that while majority-Black neighborhoods in Houston made up 14% of the area surveyed, those communities experienced 35% more pedestrian crashes than non-Black neighborhoods.

There is a direct line between under-investment in Black neighborhoods and the rising number of pedestrian crashes in those communities, Texas researchers found using Houston stats.

Professor Sharon Strover of The University of Texas at Austin talks with Austin Forum executive director Jay Boisseau about AI's implications for humans--what are the risks (both accidental and intentional), why is it hard to address some of them, and what UT's Good Systems program is doing to help! Sharon and Jay cover a wide range of related topics as they discuss the risks and benefits of AI for humans and the need to learn how to co-exist in ways that benefit all.

“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.”

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.

“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.