As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more accepted in academic and professional realms, decisions must be made about how and when this resource can be utilized. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) brought in professor Daswin De Silva, a senior member of the organization, to discuss coexisting with this new technology on Nov. 1.
Concerns about adapting to AI in the workplace have heightened in recent years since it is now advanced enough to be useful; however, AI still has a long way to go before replacing real people, if ever.
According to De Silva, OpenAI and Chat GPT released a new formula in September called OpenAI o1, which is meant to be utilized as a reasoning model in data research.
“There was an astrophysicist student who submitted their research paper without the methods and experiments section,” De Silva said. “GPTo1 created the method and also created experiments using synthetic data, which the student took just one year to figure out — GPT did this in just a couple of hours.”
While the various uses of AI are cause for concern, benefits like speeding up research is one that is hard to overlook.
Rachel Bousek, a senior electrical engineering major, understands the need to acclimate to using AI in her line of work, but would like its disadvantages to be considered.
“I wish the speaker would have addressed more of the problems that AI has and the risks it takes to use it,” Bousek said. “It was interesting to hear about how they will prevent AI from taking 10 percent of the 80 percent of jobs that are already out there. I think it will be a big topic of conversation that needs to be talked about constantly.”
Fellow senior electrical and computer engineering major Nabeela Rahman said she wished the speaker addressed some of the ethical issues with AI such as art theft; however, she also noted that what she learned may be valuable one day in her career.
“I think the lecture was very useful since we’re seeing jobs move towards those centered in AI,” Rahman said. “These technological trends are what made me want to understand AI and I can definitely see it seeping into my future software career, so it pays to be well-equipped even if I don’t pursue it personally.”
Although the uses of AI are being tested in all career fields, embracing the changes it brings can be useful down the line. Since AI has become applicable to many professions, learning how and when to use it can be beneficial.
