Some Ohio State experts said they believe Artificial Intelligence can have positive impacts on STEM fields. Credit: Nevaeh Repp | Design Editor
Artificial intelligence has taken the world by storm, causing many students to worry about how it may impact their future careers.
Even so, some Ohio State community members in the science, technology, engineering and math fields believe AI can have positive effects on the American workforce at large.
Joy Obiri, a second-year in health science, said AI can be beneficial so long as it is used wisely.
“Especially for explaining certain topics in different ways that might be explained in lectures, and especially for me as a health science major, I feel like it helps me understand things in a way that’s not really taught to me,” Obiri said.
Nya Washington, a third-year in communication technology, agreed with Obiri’s views on how AI can be a supplemental learning tool, but also emphasized its potential to stunt students’ long-term learning and professional growth.
“For example, you can take your notes and then have it condensed so you can further understand it — more for people who get really overwhelmed by a lot of reading,” Washington said. “But also because [AI is] at your fingertips, you’re kind of using it in a way that you probably shouldn’t because you’re not absorbing the information.”
Ness Shroff — a professor of electrical and computer engineering, as well as computer science and engineering — said the advantages of AI can apply to various careers, but especially to the medical field. Shroff said AI could be used to personalize the healthcare of an individual by predicting their needs.
Instead of fearing AI, Shroff said students should embrace it as an inevitable aspect of their future career journeys.
“Don’t be afraid of it, but be mindful of the risks,” Shroff said. “Educate yourself about the benefits and the risks. Be a citizen that’s involved in the regulatory process.”
Tanya Berger-Wolf, a professor of computer science and engineering — who also specializes in evolution, ecology and organismal biology — said AI is already deeply ingrained in modern life. Considering this reality, she said it’s more productive to treat this technology with curiosity rather than alarm.
“AI, as an industry, is one of the fastest-growing and [is] creating a set of jobs that are specific to that industry, and many of them are new, such as servicing data centers and creating all the chip manufacturing,” said Berger-Wolf, who also serves as director of the Translational Data Analytics Institute.
Kevin Liu, associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, said though there are fears AI could disrupt and replace jobs traditionally occupied by people, learning basic AI skills could give some students a competitive edge in the modern-day workplace.
“If you have a good understanding of AI, you can master any of these emerging or existing AI tools really well, then you can significantly improve your productivity and increase your efficiency,” Liu said.
