A few decades ago, autonomous vehicles were firmly confined to science fiction. Now, primarily because of developments in artificial intelligence, they are progressively becoming a part of our reality, significantly affecting how people conduct their daily lives.
"The idea of owning a car would be much less common if it could reliably drive itself, and there would be a lot of space in our cities that we could open up for other things," Dr. April Song explains.
Song, the first WIPFLI Fellow in Artificial Intelligence and an assistant professor of information systems and analytics spends a large portion of her day imagining what an AI-shaped future might look like and how her students will contribute to it. Her work has appeared in prominent industry journals, such as the Journal for the Association of Information Systems.
Transforming Mobility
For many decades, Americans have been dependent on their cars. Cars are necessary for millions of Americans to travel to work, education, and other vital areas. While being unable to drive or own such vehicles is an essential barrier to personal freedom, owning them constitutes a substantial financial burden.
But things are starting to shift. Autonomous car manufacturers like Waymo use AI to power the sensors and mapping features that enable their systems. Song believes that the sector's current direction has the potential to revolutionize society.
What Happens to Coding?
Talented computer programmers have historically been sought after by companies working on these innovative technologies. Artificial intelligence, however, has changed the nature of work. By passing a traditional barrier to entrance into computer science, large language models may now generate code in various programming languages.
According to Song, "artificial intelligence is not 100% accurate." "You will only be able to determine whether the response that an AI provides you is accurate if you have a solid foundation of how to code. Additionally, studying coding teaches you problem-solving techniques in addition to a programming language.
Preserving the Learning Process
To support this educational strategy, Song highlighted a crucial fact regarding artificial intelligence: AI is not a thinking machine. Even if these systems can sort through vast volumes of data and find patterns, there will always be a gap between estimates and facts. Their output simply estimates what might happen next in that pattern.
Song states that Chat GPT might not be able to solve your complex issue. Song has taken considerable measures to protect the educational process in her classes. Pen and paper are used for exams. Any artificial intelligence programming must include student comments explaining its creation. A plagiarism algorithm is in place to identify any unethical behavior.
Data Privacy Issues
Businesses need vast amounts of data to train the models that drive generative AI technologies, and this process has drawn considerable attention. Concerns about businesses gathering personal information about customers have led the FTC to launch an investigation. OpenAI's data collection practices have harmed customers after the company may have broken European data protection regulations.
Data privacy is one of the critical principles of the AI Bill of Rights that the Biden-Harris administration created in response. Despite having little legal force, this law represents the growing movement to protect data privacy and force AI businesses to be more open and careful about how they get training data.