A new institute at UMass Boston will focus on the social, ethical and diversity challenges and opportunities associated with artificial intelligence.
The university on Wednesday introduced the Paul English Applied Artificial Intelligence Institute, saying it was conceived and funded by tech entrepreneur and UMass Boston alumnus Paul English and would be “embedded in academic study across campus.”
UMass Boston Provost Joseph Berger predicted the institute “will promote the democratization of artificial intelligence by empowering every UMass Boston student to graduate with fluency — and a competitive edge — in ethically leveraging evolving AI-powered tools to improve processes and outcomes in their chosen professional field.”
The opportunities for artificial intelligence to deliver promising advances, and potentially dangerous outcomes, have been coming into sharper focus this year, and the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday held a public meeting to examine the landscape and hear from insiders.
“We think that regulatory intervention by governments will be critical to mitigate the risks of increasingly powerful models,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in his opening remarks, according to Yahoo Finance.
UMass Boston said it wants to give its graduates “the tools to shape the increasingly AI-powered world of work.”
During a WBUR radio interview on Tuesday, Gov. Maura Healey said Massachusetts has “amazing potential when it comes to AI” but warned that other states are competing in that sector as she pushed for budgetary and tax policy changes to make the Bay State more attractive to residents and businesses.
English has committed $5 million to establish the institute, as well as an associated scholarship fund, UMass Boston said. The institute will launch during the 2023–2024 academic year, using the English funds as well as a $2 million match from the UMass Foundation.
“We are at the dawn of a new era. Like the agricultural revolution, the development of the steam engine, the invention of the computer and the introduction of the smartphone, the birth of artificial intelligence is fundamentally changing how we live and work,” UMass Boston Chancellor Marcelo Suárez-Orozco said. “Like any transformative technology, AI is also raising social, ethical and diversity questions that UMass Boston is ideally suited to explore.”
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