With artificial intelligence (AI) becoming a prevalent topic on university campuses each semester, the question of whether it is a positive or negative educational resource continues to linger.
Each semester, the UNLV Honors College holds three athenaeums for its students. With this question of AI in mind, the first of the athenaeums this academic semester was intended to provide insight into the world of technology and its future.
The Athenaeum occurred from 4:30 to 6 p.m. on Sept. 6 inside UNLV’s Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall. Honors College alumni panelists included Maui Orozco (Public Policy Manager at Meta), Avnish Bhatnagar (Manager at Google Maps Platform Support), Sean Kau (Computer Science Application Coordinator at Google), and Ting Ku (Director of Engineering at Nvidia), with Lisa Menegatos (Dean of the Honors College) as the moderator.
Starting off with addressing how the world came to acknowledge the use of AI, the panelists conveyed that AI was to an extent discovered by accident. Ultimately, it advanced because ideas began to develop on how to use it.
While the topic of AI is still in its developing stages, the panelists see this as a motivator to get the use of it into UNLV and other university classrooms as an AI course.
“AI is a tool, it’s not here to replace independent thought or human creativity,” said Orozco. “Start using it. The longer you don’t use it, the easier it is to be afraid of it. Start familiarizing yourself with it, it’s going to keep advancing. It’s going to be a part of our lives. Really understand it and make sure you’re not getting left behind in this technology revolution.”
Following Dean Menegatos’ questioning if people should be worried about robots taking over the world with the expansion of AI, the consensus from the panelists was that it is not going to be a concern of this generation. Even with its advancements, AI can’t do things like discreet logic, as it doesn’t have rationing capabilities in the current form.
“I actually feel like there are a lot of people talking about the risks, the harms, the ethics about [AI]. Not just in the U.S. but globally.” Orozco continued, “From where I sit in D.C., there are actually a lot of conversations. From a student perspective, there’s just so much opportunity there. How often do you get to be at the forefront of creating policy?”
Policy discussions on AI will be essential in the future. The panelists pointed out that it may be true AI will change more about society than the internet, but it is unclear how. As of today, AI performs well in tasks that do not require creativity or judgment.
Sophia Gibson, a freshman in the Honors College, said, “I thought the athenaeum was very interesting because even though it’s not related to my major, they gave us very good real life advice for any job we may have in the future. It shows us that many good qualities for jobs are translated throughout different professions.”
With this in mind, the panelists urged UNLV students to get involved in internships and pinpointed the importance of exposure in one’s professional field. They expressed that exposure can be even more important than grades.
“I loved the athenaeum,” said Aeron Pearson, an Honors College freshman. “Being able to learn from industry professionals was truly an enlightening experience. Hearing from Google, Meta and Nvidia, these individuals were highly knowledgeable in their respective fields. One takeaway I got from this athenaeum was the importance of internships and networking.”
Ku ended the discussion on the point that the world is changing too fast. If students don’t take risks, other people will and the rest will be left behind.
