Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are social, cultural, and ethical, and they raise big questions for humanity.
As dean of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities College of Liberal Arts GerShun Avilez says:
As these new technologies reshape industries and influence our daily lives, they also raise important questions about the relationship between people and technology. That’s why we need the liberal arts, which provide the context to grapple with these questions through a humanity-centered perspective.
At the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, liberal arts scholars are navigating artificial intelligence with curiosity and purpose, bringing their informed perspectives to students who will go on to help shape how humans conceive of the AI-human relationship.
For example, as director of the College of Liberal Arts’ Language Center, linguist, researcher, educator, and writer Amanda Dalola is embracing AI as her language-learning partner—and even occasional life coach.
Meanwhile Galin Jones, a statistician who believes the College of Liberal Arts is the place to navigate an AI-driven future, is making sure statistics students understand both the history and future of the field. “You cannot do AI without statistics,” says Jones, which is why the School of Statistics is prioritizing preparing students to navigate an AI-driven future.
And since so much of the philosophy of AI harkens back to history, it makes sense that British mathematician Alan Turing—who envisioned as early as the 1950s a machine that could think and learn like humans—is the subject of I am Alan Turing, an opera created by assistant professor, sound designer, and composer Frederick Kennedy, who collaborated with other creatives to bring the opera to life.
Several other faculty voices across the College of Liberal Arts, from fields ranging from philosophy to music, also offer up what excites (and unsettles) them most about AI.
Explore all of this and more in “AI raises big questions,” a deep look into AI from the College of Liberal Arts.
