CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Industry leaders who study artificial intelligence say West Virginia should use AI as a tool to help improve education, health care and cyber security outcomes.
Marshall University President Brad Smith led a panel discussion on the future of AI Monday at the state Culture Center.
Jamie Butler with Amazon web services told the panel he’s most impressed with AI for the security aspect.
“Some of the things I think are really cool are actually how AI can help government be more effective. We’re seeing AI help reduce fraud, we’re seeing AI help enhance citizen services and we’re seeing it really improve the way we engage and make our people more effective,” he said.
One of those ways AI is making people more effective is in the workplace, according to Ryan Palmer with Microsoft.
“I’m on this journey right now becoming better at using AI to be more productive and efficient at work. That allows me to be more creative and to think differently when you’re able to take some of those tasks and have AI handle them for you,” Palmer told the panel.
In the next 10 years, experts say AI can be used to create new drugs in healthcare and help students in the classroom. Butler said AI uses skill assessments to meet students where they are.
“Using AI to understand where a student is at, what areas of knowledge they come into the classroom with, and then where their gaps are. AI is really helping to do that assessment and then create personalized learning paths for those students, so it really levels the playing field,” he said.
Palmer said one application in particular is helping to change lives on an individual basis, including visual impairment.
“Some of the most exciting applications about AI come around disability. We have over 1 billion people in the world today living with disabilities. Progress is being made on making the world and technology accessible,” he said.
Amy Cyphert with the WVU School of Law said the future of AI will depend on how the tool is regulated by government. She said the revolution of the internet in 1996 was a different time compared to the social media boom in 2006.
“If I could actually hold up my phone and I could know every single one of your names and I could know other links to where your images are on the internet, that might have privacy implications,” she said. “I think what I’m excited about is that this can really help us develop and grow a better society, but it’s all going to come down to how we choose to use it, and a lot of that will depend on how you choose to regulate it.”