Op/ed: Colleges Must Prepare Students for an AI World
Information Systems Researcher: Understanding of ‘Human-Machine Boundary’ Needed
By Ritu Agarwal
Illustration by iStock
The rise of artificial intelligence and machine learning creates new imperatives for what we teach across all majors, says Professor Ritu Agarwal.
The pace of technological change in the development of artificial intelligence is exponential, and AI could soon begin complementing human analysis in work that requires judgment and intuition, says Ritu Agarwal, professor and Robert H. Smith Dean’s Chair of Information Systems, currently serving as the school’s interim dean.
In a world where AI and robotics play an ever-larger role, workers and members of society need a clear understanding of where the “human-machine boundary falls,” she wrote yesterday in The Baltimore Sun.
Computer scientist Andrew Ng has called artificial intelligence “the new electricity” and bemoaned a “scarcity of talent and data slowing” its adoption. Meanwhile, research and advisory firm Gartner has projected that AI will create 2.3 million new jobs next year—while eliminating 1.8 million jobs.
Our college curricula must respond swiftly. As educators, we must prepare our students to succeed in a society where human and machine intelligence co-exist. Corporate human resource executives also must consider how to train employees to be productive in the new workplace.
The rise of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) creates new imperatives for what we teach across all majors.
Read the rest in The Baltimore Sun.
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