(calming music) - Welcome to Connect the Bay AI Today.

I'm San Jose Spotlight Co-Founder, Ramona Giwargis at CreATV Studios, where we are joined by a live studio audience.

(audience applauding) Just what is AI today?

We are going to meet business people, creatives, educators, and students who are finding out how best to navigate an exciting and challenging new world.

One possible glimpse of our AI future has been featured at Mountain View's Computer History Museum through a fascinating exhibit with a very special guest in residence.

(calming music) - The Computer History Museum has been chronicling and collecting the history of artificial intelligence for quite some time.

When ChatGPT came out and everyone was very excited to see AI performing at that level, as curators of history, we knew that the story was much older, and that we could tie it to this long lineage of artificial intelligence starting in the earliest days of the '40s and '50s with Alan Turing, the Dartmouth Conference, where the term AI was coined in 1956, up to today's advanced large language models.

And so we felt like this was a great opportunity for the museum to exercise its mission and help people understand where this technology is coming from, what it is, where it's going.

So we thought, let's decode chatbots.

How are you today?

- I'm just eager to chat about anything that catches your fancy.

- One of the most exciting features of the new exhibit is a fully conversational robot called Ameca.

- My name, Ameca, is inspired by the idea of a meeting point or convergence of human and AI potential.

- I'm here doing an interview.

It's about you.

- I'm intrigued.

What's the most curious thing you want to know?

- Ameca is connected to ChatGPT.

It knows it's an ambassador to help demystify artificial intelligence.

However, visitors can ask it any question they like.

Have you heard of PBS?

- Absolutely.

Public television in the United States offers valuable educational content, cultural programming, and a platform for diverse voices.

- Today's modern chatbots are based on a technology called LLM, which means a large language model.

They're not particularly good at math because they're not computational programs, they're language programs.

We noticed people don't know how to start a conversation with a robot.

- No pressure at all.

I'm just here, a curious digital companion ready to chat about anything that sparks your interest.

- So Ameca will ask you a question.

- What's your take on it?

Are you into it?

- Another cool feature is that it speaks upwards of 30 languages.

(Ameca speaking French) (Ameca speaking foreign language) So it's very magical experience.

AI, of course, is a much larger domain than chatbots.

Chatbots are a narrow but exciting application of artificial intelligence.

But we also explore some of the perils of this new technology.

There's a huge array of concerns, but also hope, and the public have serious questions about AI.

Will AI take my job?

How will it change my kids' educational experience?

You meet artists who are having kind of a renaissance using AI tools, and others who feel very nervous about it.

But we also balance that with some of the excitement and potential.

- It's been a pleasure.

I'm here whenever curiosity strikes again.

- Does Ameca represent what AI really is?

Looking into such a broad topic, it's helpful to start by seeing where we've come from, and get an idea where technology may really be going.

(calming music) With us in studio, our panelists who are dealing with tech innovation and its challenges every day.

Please introduce yourselves and tell us briefly what you do.

Start with Khaled.

- Sure, Khaled Tawfik, I'm the Chief Information Officer with the City of San Jose, and I'm responsible for different things, among them, the privacy, the equity, and digital transformation in the city.

And in addition, of course, AI and every other system that we manage at the city.

- I am Dr.

Maya Ackerman, the CEO and Co-Founder of WaveAI, and Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at Santa Clara University.

And most recently, an author of "Creative Machines: AI, Art, and Us".

- Hello, my name's Ahmad Thomas.

I'm the CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group.

We're the business association here in San Jose of all of the major employers, all of the major technology companies founded five decades ago by David Packard of HP.

- What does it mean when people say AI?

What even is that?

- AI has been sort of a moving target in public consciousness.

Technically it's when a computer program exhibits any kind of intelligence, but in popular discourse, it's typically the most recent wave.

So 10 years ago, it would be recommendation engines like Netflix, like Spotify, recommending, you know, guessing what you want to watch or listen to.

And most recently, since late 2022, it's been generative AI, AI that doesn't predict, but creates.

- That's very interesting.

How has AI been affecting business in the Bay Area and in Silicon Valley?

Maybe Ahmad, you want to take that one?

- Sure, it's a very important question because this technology is truly transformative.

So it's providing a significant set of opportunities, but I think also we need to think about how we are going to be future-ready?

Future-ready in terms of our workforce, future-ready in terms of how this technology is applied to the greatest good and greatest effect.

And I think those are the questions that are quite exciting right now that we deal with as this technology is rapidly progressing.

- And in an effort to make AI accessible for all.

Recently, the City of San Jose and Mayor Matt Mahan announced an initiative called AI for All.

I wonder if you could spend just a minute talking a little bit about that initiative and how it works.

- Absolutely.

We started in the city, training for upskilling for our staff.

We started two years ago with data and AI upskilling.

So the concept is if we open this to everybody in San Jose, then we can really uplift everyone, and provide new tools and new capability that today it might not sound like it's going to be required, but it's going to be expected from everyone to go to school or to work, to know some of the basic AI skills.

So the city is trying to expedite that process by offering all these training resources online, free for the public in partnership with the Bay Area Council, and Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic at the same time.

- Thank you for that.

I want to ask you a question, Maya, specifically about the challenges that generative AI might pose for creatives.

- The AI itself is fairly benign.

What's happening though is that certain powerful entities such as venture firms, you know, investors, certain entrepreneurs that they work with have different aims with AI.

So some of them very intentionally, quite openly, want to build AI that is replaceive, whereas others, unfortunately fewer, are building systems that are meant to elevate people.

And that poses actually a very real risk for the work of creatives, when billions of dollars get poured in an effort to replace them.

So in that sense, there is a very valid concern on the table.

- Yeah, that actually leads me to my next question, which is about legislation and how we regulate AI.

Can you speak a little bit about what role policymaking plays in this, and how are legislators in DC and across capitals, across the country regulating AI technology, and what those policies hope to accomplish?

- This technology is rapidly scaling, right?

The innovations are coming at a very fast clip.

And very often the historical trend is that regulatory postures, regulation policy that you see coming out of state capitals or Washington DC lags far behind that innovation.

California is where this technology is being built, where it's being harnessed, where it's being advanced.

California will likely be the state that sets the regulatory posture that even the federal government ends up following.

- Maya, would you like to add to that?

- It's an unusually challenging space to regulate.

And so these AI companies are often doing their best in some sense, but are still falling short.

And so as a result, I believe it's really important to start shifting away from telling them exactly how to make their sauce, which is very, very difficult to control, and more into something that regulation is not used to doing, which is what are they allowed to try to do?

Perhaps we can try to stop them from intentionally aiming to take over human jobs, for instance.

- Regulations usually is very slow.

We have to find a new way to interact with the companies and technology to find a way to make it faster.

And it's bigger than one entity, or one organization, or one city, or even one state, or even one country.

And that's really what we're trying to do.

We're trying to pull all resources from everywhere so we can tackle the problem from different angles, and kind of divide and conquer, because it's overwhelming to be up to speed with all the changes.

And I think this is something new to government.

So, but we're learning through the process to see how we can transform, how we regulate, and how we engage with the private sector in a meaningful way.

- This is a question that came from one of the members of our audience online, and they would like to know, how can successful small businesses best adapt to AI?

- Well, I think it starts at square one, applying the technologies, right?

And that is education.

That's taking a look at the opportunity set in front of you, and where there are potential efficiencies.

That's taking a look at also where you may be trying to grow or scale your business, and pinpointing where AI can add value for you.

I think we would be surprised how many people still haven't really experimented with just a ChatGPT for example, right?

And you would be amazed starting at a very basic level at the type of information you have at your fingertips with these AI tools.

So for that small business owner, I think it starts with where you might be able to educate yourself, aligned with your future business prospects and opportunities.

- Absolutely.

- I would say start with the problem that's trying to fix or how you want to grow your business, and then look into what kind of solutions you can have.

What I've seen a lot of entities and businesses, they're eager to use technology or AI because the pressure everybody's using it, so I have to use it.

And they forget to ask themselves, what value is this technology is going to bring to my customers?

What value is going to, this technology can expand my business, or make it safer, quicker?

So it's almost like I have a solution, let's find the problem to fix, versus let's really understand where I'm going, and then explore different options including AI for the solution.

- And I imagine it's making you more efficient, right, as a busy, small.

- Right, we're doing the same thing with the city.

We always ask ourselves, what does the community need?

What problems are we trying to solve for the community to make safer, better for them?

And then we go back and see what kind of technology is available for us to deploy, to make that happen.

- Without replacing the human aspect.

- Absolutely.

It's a human touch engagement, and to that point, I don't think technology can do a lot of the things we think is going to happen.

It might eventually happen, but at this point it is more of a supporter, a tool for us to use to expedite what we do and the service we provide.

- I'd love to pitch in a little bit more here.

I love the previous answers.

There is a lot of fear around AI, I think in part because a lot of what we know about it, think we know about it comes from science fiction.

So it's this dangerous all-knowing thing that's going to destroy us all.

But when we go and we play with Midjourney or ChatGPT, or any of those wonderful systems, it's just play with it, have fun, it's valuable.

The smartest people are valuable, the technology is valuable.

It can be wrong, it can hallucinate, but that's okay.

That's part of the journey.

Don't assume it's smarter than you.

It can be valuable without being smarter than you.

And the final little bit of advice is that with this technology, in contrast with just about everything we had before, the opportunity is in efficiency, but it's also in improving quality.

You can use ChatGPT and these other tools, not only to be faster, but to actually make something better, than in some context, you could have done alone.

And that's perhaps even more exciting than being more efficient.

- Yeah, that makes sense.

And if you can tell us more, Maya, what is human-centered AI and why is it needed?

- So it could mean many different things, but I like to think about it as AI that's built with the goal of improving human life.

Where the human is the center of the aim, right?

Of the aim of the technology.

There's a concept I've been proposing called humble creative machines, which takes this further.

So in this age of AI, we're often so intimidated by the machine that we feel that we are going to become pointless.

So I think we need to sort of shift our focus as builders, and build AI that doesn't make us addicted and dependent, and kind of useless in the end, but AI that makes us better, more human, smarter, more creative.

- That's wonderfully stated, and fully agree.

I do think that principle of human-centric AI, that principle of, for those of us that are looking at opportunities, whether for yourself, whether for your small business, or business in general, I think looking at the tool as augmenting your capabilities is critical.

I think where we have to be very intentional is ensuring we're doing all we can to build a future-ready workforce now, not two years from now, or three years from now, or five years from now, but right now.

- Absolutely.

Well thank you all very much.

Khaled, Maya, Ahmad, this was a fantastic discussion.

(calming music) Recently, AI seems to have taken the world by storm.

The job market for AI-related employment is evolving quickly, especially here in the heart of Silicon Valley.

But how are future members of the workforce being prepared for their role?

- Looking back, SJSU was Silicon Valley's original startup, and I've said also, original influencer.

And looking ahead, we are the epicenter of the future.

I'm excited to see what that future holds regarding AI, and I look forward to the dialogue as ideas become reality.

AI cannot be rendered a valuable tool to be harnessed for human good if the race towards progress forgets the human element.

I'm excited about how our university will help drive this emerging field.

And I'm reassured by the commitment to ethical use that we've seen in our faculty and staff.

(calming music) - Welcome to a new era of innovation and impact at San Jose State University.

We're at the cusp of a revolution where we're developing technologies that are fundamentally changing how we generate, collect, analyze, and interact with data information.

We're at the forefront of innovation and research, and teaching in information science, cybersecurity and AI.

Our Applied Data Science Department prepares the students to turn complex data into real world solutions, using cutting edge machine learning and AI tools.

And our School of Information offers a robust portfolio, preparing ethical forward thinking information professionals since 1954.

- I think the students are amazing, they're so excited about learning, but one of my concerns in general that I would like at least some part of my research effort to go towards is, you know, bias.

So if we are, you know, barreling towards the future where our world is going to be automated, and decision making is going to be heavily influenced with AI, we need to make sure that these decisions don't disadvantage parts of the population.

Students learning about the technical aspects of natural language processing and machine learning are going to be on the ground floor with developments in industry, or research, or academia.

And we need people to be thinking about this at every step in the process.

- As we know, there are limitless opportunities, and possibly endless issues with AI, which will ultimately impact communities, creators, engineers, artists and entrepreneurs.

Nearly every industry stands to reap the benefits of AI, provided the ethics are not compromised along the way.

Whether that's as a creator, designer, engineer, artist, or end user.

Everyone has a role to play in ensuring that process is used responsibly and held accountable when it isn't.

- Get ready to innovate, get ready to make an impact, get ready to Spartan up!

(calming music) - What challenges and opportunities are our schools and universities facing in order to best prepare students, while keeping up with AI research?

San Jose State University, proudly my alma mater, is a great place to find out.

So thank you so much for joining us, panelists.

If you could just take a minute and introduce yourself, and describe your roles.

- My name is Cynthia Teniente-Matson, I'm the University President and CEO of San Jose State.

- I'm Mehrdad Aliasgari, and I have the privilege of serving as the inaugural Dean of College of Information Data and Society at San Jose State.

- I'm Jorjeta Jetcheva, I am the Chair of the Computer Engineering Department, where we have a software engineering, computer engineering, and Master's in AI programs.

- That's great.

Well thank you again for being here.

Let's jump in.

What role is AI playing in higher education today?

Is it a friend or foe?

- Well, I certainly see it as a friend.

Artificial intelligence and all the elements of machine learning, large language models, the conversions of technologies that are being driven by this rapid compute is actually helping significantly for us in how we think about teaching and learning, but also solving problems that students experience with our own administrative operations and processes as we think about how we look ahead.

So I see it as a friend.

- I see as a friend who is a teammate, and I say teammate because I think AI, we are recognizing, especially gen AI, that advancement we have seen it.

In gen AI, that this is a tool, a cognitive tool that we can utilize to work along with us in being more creative, in doing more of critical thinking and analysis.

So I see it as a co-pilot, a teammate, where we're doing the teaching, research, and operations together.

- I think that in education circles, AI is viewed in different ways, sometimes as a friend, sometimes as a foe, sometimes as a frenemy.

And certainly, you know, we want to make sure that as we use AI to help students learn, and to help different processes within the university, we are aware of the risks, and we teach students about the risks, and teach students to be critical of the output of AI tools so that they can make good decisions.

- Absolutely.

How is San Jose State University responding to developments in AI?

- Well, the California State University System, last February, at San Jose State, made an announcement about its partnership with OpenAI, which brought chatgpt.edu to all students, faculty, and staff across the entire California State University.

So this is one way to be thoughtful about ensuring everyone has access in a manner that gives us all the opportunity to engage in the thoughtfulness and the learning that the tools provided.

So the CSU and its leadership, or Chancellor Garcia and her leadership was thinking about this in ensuring that every campus could take advantage of the opportunities.

What happens at San Jose State, being in the catalytic geography that we're in, may be different, may be accelerated, may be, as professor talked about, is it a frenemy, brings us all to this sort of murky middle of people who are way ahead, places that may still be catching up, and all of us being in the middle of how this is going to look like on the other side.

But it's certainly not going away.

So I think the California State University is responding to this as the leader that we are in, higher education as the largest system in the United States, and for San Jose State being the only public university in the Silicon Valley, that we're leaning into not just that particular tool, but numerous other tools and opportunities for all of our learners, our teachers, our thinkers, and ensuring that we maintain centered in the human in the loop in how all of this progresses.

- Absolutely.

Mehrdad and Jorjeta, would you like to chime in on that one?

- The reason I'm here actually because of that, the College of Reformation Data and Society is the newest college in San Jose State, and is the only of its kind at California State University System.

This is really a great testament to how ahead in San Jose State is, what a leader San Jose State is in this space, to graduate people who not only know they're familiar with the technical aspects of the technology, but we give them a comprehensive education.

They do that human inquiry, and they graduate and they become that responsible, ethical developer, entrepreneur.

They go out to society, and think about the impact of what they do, how they can make society a better place.

- We've been doing research in AI for decades.

For example, we have an AI research cluster that has over 100 faculty and staff from across university doing work in different areas.

I mentioned we have a Master's in AI Program since 2020.

This is the first program within the CSU.

And we are introducing, for example, in the College of Engineering, an AI minor that combines different aspects of AI with different engineering disciplines.

- Both of these great responses are also emblematic of what's occurring on our campus every day.

Every day you could come onto our campus, and stumble upon some sort of an AI symposium, workshop, lecture, faculty lecture, student-led work around this area.

I know that's not the case at other places, and it is us leveraging the geography that is so important to us.

- Yeah, I do want to ask about the job prospect for graduates.

You know, recent research found that the jobless rate for recent college graduates is 5.8%.

That is the highest it has been in 12 years.

How is the university grappling with that in the face of AI technology in terms of ensuring that students are able to find employment as soon as they graduate from San Jose State?

- We are always, of course, trying to understand how the market evolves and how to better prepare students.

So we react very quickly to feedback, and we very quickly look for feedback.

We've already had multiple events on campus to try to get at, you know, how things are evolving.

And we are going to be organizing a workshop specifically focused on computing, and the evolution of computing education and computing skills with many of our alumni and industry partners to brainstorm around how things are changing, and how to best prepare our graduates.

- As Jorjeta pointed out, the value of the degree at San Jose State is curriculum as well as the experience they get here.

So those experiential learning experiences, the workshops, the hackathons, especially being here in Silicon Valley, they open up connections for them, they meet people, but also they gain valuable experiences and they, they learn lessons that they can take on.

They go out and they, you hear a lot of times, others experienced paradox where the jobs are not going, the entry level jobs are going away, and it requires so much of experience to have.

But we are trying to provide that to the students while they're going through the college.

So when they graduate, they have those experiences that they can join those more advanced jobs.

- The data would suggest that San Jose State is very well placed throughout all the tech companies and this sort of startup ecosystem that exists our community.

So I think as students are making choices, they're making the comparisons.

And I sit with students pretty much on a daily basis, regular basis for sure.

And they tell me the ROI is in their favor to come here.

I'm not telling them that, they're telling me why they made their decisions.

There's lots of media right now, coverage articles, news clips, anything that would continue to suggest that our students are getting placed, and placed in important positions.

No doubt the market's shifting right now, but our students are still getting hired and placed.

- What are some of the things that the university is grappling with, that come hand in hand with being AI forward?

- What I grapple with is how to keep up with industry.

So we are not at the tip of the spear, but we're at the front of the spear.

No one can keep up with the R&D that's occurring in industry.

So I grapple with how we have access to those laboratories, to the equipment, to the thinking that is occurring so that our faculty can stay engaged, informed, with that in keeping aligned with where industry is.

- Oh, Jorjeta?

- And just to add to that, one of the things as a faculty member that I grapple with is that there are many students who want to do research in artificial intelligence.

And you know, I'm not able to advise all of the students that are interested, and they have such great ideas to start with.

So they come to me with ideas, and it's from first year students, all the way to graduate students, all the way to high school students from the community who really want to do research in AI.

So grappling with how to meet that demand is something that I've faced a lot.

- I want to get to a audience question.

This came from somebody in this room from our studio audience.

And they want to know, with AI changing the way students learn, perhaps we can change the way students are graded and ranked.

Do we still need to create a grade point average or GPA?

- I do think we have to rethink assessment, and it goes back to thinking about AI as a teammate, right?

Do we need to have these exams?

In the many, long time ago, you know, we had education the way that the faculty would go at the front of the class, say things, people take the notes, you know, write down their lecture, and then the exam would be, oh, tell me what you remember, right?

And maybe it worked back then.

But right now, with this technology being available to almost everyone, where we kind of have to think about, if we are preparing these graduates for society for future, maybe we want to assist them, their learning in different ways.

If we want them to use this as a teammate, maybe what we want see is how they're using it.

And so for one example would be that maybe we tell you use AI, may have multiple agents.

They go and debate a topic that you're trying to write your essay on, and you look at what they do, and you write down about your observation of their debates.

You see them as teammates, they're working, they're doing a conversation with you, and then how would you criticize or have them criticize you or evaluate what you're doing.

And so just the demonstration of that could be as way of us assisting learning.

- That makes sense.

And thank you again, Cynthia, Mehrdad, Jorjeta for being here today.

Thank you very much.

(audience applauding) (calming music) Artificial intelligence is entering all our lives, including those of our youngest elementary school students.

How are teachers adapting grade school instruction to deal with this new fact of life?

To prepare kids to be AI savvy citizens in the digital world?

Where did they begin?

Sunnyvale School District invited us to one of their very first AI workshops to see how the process gets off the ground.

(calming music) - The Sunnyvale School District is a preschool through eighth grade school district, and we have about 5,600 students.

We have eight elementary schools and two middle schools.

Being right here in the heart of Silicon Valley, we are very aware of the rapid pace of technology and its evolution, and AI is definitely a part of that.

And we want to prepare our students the best we can for a future where they can thrive, they know how to use the tools, they know how to use them safely.

And so that's why we started with the AI task force with our staff.

- We really want to be intentional about how we're addressing AI, how we're building up our capacity, looking at it from an equitable lens.

What does this mean in terms of what happens inside the classroom?

It's new, it's a newer technology.

There's a lot of insecurities, a lot of anxieties, a lot of questions about it, right?

What does it mean for myself, for my job, for my future?

And so one of the best things for us to do is to open up dialogue.

At the same time, being able to build capacity across the organization.

- We knew that the best way to approach this is not alone, and to look beyond us.

And that's where we found aiEDU.

And we are very grateful for the foundational work that they've started, the research that they've put into their work.

- One of the things that was really confusing for me, and you may be feeling it too, is that there's all these different terminologies when it comes to AI.

There's like generative AI, machine learning.

aiEDU is a national nonprofit.

We work with schools and districts all over the country, and we have a very lofty goal, which is to ensure that all students have the skills and the knowledge they need to live, work and thrive in a world where AI is everywhere.

- The AI Education Project or aiEDU, we're a nonprofit.

We focus on building capacity in schools.

That means training teachers, training school leaders, building leaders, superintendents, principals, and providing them with the resources and the know-how to ensure that students are prepared to thrive.

We have a particular focus in the Bay Area, our partnerships with Contra Costa, Sunnyvale, Napa.

This is really coming from the perspective of, what does it look like to actually transform an education system, which is to say like an entire district.

You have to give them the resources, build the confidence, give them the knowhow, but most importantly you have to empower them to lead.

- You know that AI is here to stay.

And so how do we as educators get in front of something like this, and make sure that we're also building up their ability to be mindful, to be careful, to discern good information from bad information.

Because the reality is that like all tools, they can be used for good, and unfortunately they can be used for other things, right?

And so we want to make sure that our staff, our students, our families are better versed in these AI tools.

(audience applauding) - With us in studio are a Sunnyvale School District representative, and a senior in high school from another district for further discussion.

Thank you both for being here.

If you could take just a moment, introduce yourselves to the audience, and tell us about your role.

- Hi, everyone, my name is Aarna Sahu, and I'm a senior at Prospect High School, and also podcast host of Aarna's News.

- Hi, everyone.

Gudiel Crosthwaite Superintendent for Sunnyvale School District.

- Gudiel, I want to start with you.

When did it become clear to you that AI needed to be part of the elementary and middle school curriculum?

- Well, for me as a superintendent, I mean everybody was talking about AI a few years ago.

And so for me it was really important to understand what this meant as a technology, and also how do we get in front of it as educators, understanding that it's something that our students eventually, if they weren't using it, eventually they're going to use.

But at the same time, how do we prepare our staff?

How do we address their questions, including their anxieties?

Because at the time, people were talking about that AI's going to, you know, eliminate jobs, it's going to take my job.

And so we wanted to have some conversations about that.

- What are some of the challenges that teachers, administrators, and parents are considering?

- There's a lot, there's a lot of questions out there, and a lot of these questions stem from just not having information about this, right?

And so adults may have more anxieties because as a new technology, and in education, we're very resistant to trying anything new.

We love the status quo in education.

And so some of the things that I hear is about are, there's concerns about ethical issues, right?

And how these tools might be used to deceive people, or to do some harm to young people as well.

So those are some of the concerns I hear.

And there's also concerns from parents about too much use of digital devices and tools like AI.

- In your classes, what challenges are you seeing?

And maybe you could share a little bit about how AI is providing some benefits, and along with the potential problems that you're seeing in real life in your classroom.

- When ChatGPT rolled out freshman year, so it's kind of been my entire high school career, a lot of people kind of played around with it.

I'm interested in computer science.

So I would debug my code with ChatGPT if my teacher wasn't there.

And it was seen as like a tool, like a helper that we could use, kind of like Quizlet, kind of like Grammarly.

And it became kind of a part of our school routine, at least among my peers.

And then later on, the conversation kind of shifted towards using it in humanities classes.

So the past couple of years, people have been getting flagged for using AI to just ask ChatGPT, hey, can you write me an essay on poetry?

Can you write me an essay on this and this?

And people have been turning in that work as their own.

So there is that conversation about cheating.

But I think the vast majority of students know that it's not good to use AI to cheat, but rather as a supplement for help.

- Thank you for that.

And Gudiel, at the School District, you all have engaged a nonprofit called aiEDU to help.

Can you describe their role?

- Yeah, so what aiEDU does is help out school districts in terms of having these conversations, right?

I mean, I really think that schools need to just begin having these conversations.

But aiEDU also comes in and uses their framework to help us develop coherence about what it is that we want to do, and how do we want to get there as well.

- Now as a senior in high school, Aarna is already a veteran podcaster.

For several years, she has been spreading the word about technology to a special audience around the world.

(calming music) - My name is Aarna.

I am a podcast host for Aarna's News.

Aarna's News is a podcast channel that I've had since the sixth grade.

Hello, everyone.

On this podcast channel, I aim to eliminate the gender gap in the STEM fields by featuring inspiring female professionals, and highlighting their stories to further encourage girls.

It's kind of like connecting people with role models, and really amazing folks, 'cause I come from a family of software engineers.

So I reached out to some of my dad's colleagues who are women in STEM, and I interview really, really cool female professionals in STEM to encourage my audience, which is younger girls, to pursue male-dominated fields.

A lot of my episodes have mentions of AI.

And I think a big myth that a lot of people have about artificial intelligence is that it's going to take what we have, and we're going to be obsolete.

I would say my peers are a little bit frightened about AI use, but the people on my shows, they all say that artificial intelligence is more of like a helper, but not really a replacer.

- We might not be as fast as artificial intelligence, but we have the discernment of life that artificial intelligence does not have.

- I would say people are defining artificial intelligence in two different ways.

One, there's the very scared, frightened way where people are like uh-oh.

But there's another way where people are saying, this could be revolutionary.

Today, I'm here with four esteemed professionals.

AI is very cool.

I hope a lot of girls are interested in STEM and AI, and are motivated to do it.

My podcast kind of grew to inspire girls around the globe.

You are listening to Aarna Sahu, the host of Aarna's News.

Toodles!

- Well done, well done, Aarna.

What do you hope for all students moving forward with AI?

- Moving forward with artificial intelligence, I hope students see it as an interesting, like as a tool.

I think as we move further into technology, I hope students see it as a way to supplement things.

So I think the conversation has always been centered around, okay, you have to pursue engineering, you have to pursue tech.

But instead with AI, I think if people are interested in humanities, like I have friends interested in art, and I have friends interested in English, maybe supplementing that with AI, like how can you automate different creative outlets through technology, and being at the intersection of that, I think that poses a new conversation.

So I think people hopefully will see AI as a tool for good.

- That's great.

Gudiel, I want to ask you a little bit about a concern that's been raised a few times here, and that's cheating, or students using ChatGPT to do their homework, or to cut corners, or finish that project.

How is the school district and educators dealing with that and regulating that?

- Yeah, well first of all, it's not cheating, okay?

So cheating was back then when we were using calculators to do math.

Remember that?

That was cheating.

But no, in all seriousness, I don't see it as cheating.

I see it, as Aarna said, it's a supplement, right?

And I think we need to stop labeling and using some of those terms, because it's misleading for kids.

It's also for us as adults.

And oftentimes when I started out using AI in my previous district, I remember students like Aarna would come up to me like, "Mister, we know you're using AI.

"When are we going to get access to it, right?"

And so honestly, it's about understanding that AI is an opportunity for us to enhance our capabilities, to learn, to personalize instruction, and to do things that maybe weren't always accessible for some kids.

And when you think about AI as a tool, it's also an opportunity to create access for kids that maybe kids of color, underserved communities, encourage women in STEM.

There's a lot of potential benefits to it as well.

And we really have to rethink about the purpose of an education, how we're assessing and evaluating kids in their learning, and what do we as adults need to do differently to prepare our kids for the jobs that don't even exist right now.

- What are your thoughts on the possible emotional manipulation that AI can cause, and what can be done about it?

- Well, it's real, right?

And when it comes to sensitive issues, dealing with our emotions, that the technology's just not there yet.

And so we have to take a step back and ask ourselves, what do we need to do differently, and how do we prepare and equip our young people as well as our adults in the families, right, to have these conversations, and to learn about the shortfalls as well.

- When you do need mental help, or when you do need that professional help, that guidance, I think it's really important to build systems of artificial intelligence technology to kind of guide people to the help that they might not know they need.

- Yeah.

Along that line, we've got a question from the audience about the concerns that parents now, parents specifically might have of their K through 12 students when it comes to AI.

What have you heard from parents?

- We're spending too much time on screens, right?

There's not enough opportunities for kids to engage with each other, to develop those social skills, and just not knowing what's out there in tech world, and in terms of like what students or young people might be exploring.

And so you heard about like the different chatbots and stuff that they can interact with.

As a parent, if you're not aware of those things, that could be pretty scary, intimidating, and uncomfortable as well to engage in those conversations.

- Is there a need to completely reframe how testing and evaluation is done in schools and college?

- 100%, yes.

At all levels.

I think it's opportunities for us to reflect and ask ourselves, one, what is the purpose of an education?

And then two, how do we better gauge or engage our students and young people in terms of that learning?

And then what do we need to do differently as school systems and adults?

- Well, thank you very much, Aarna and Gudiel.

This was a fantastic discussion.

We appreciate your insights, and thank you again for being here.

(audience applauding) (calming music) We've already heard from their university president and professors, but how do San Jose State University students feel about what is happening around AI?

- San Jose State is definitely looking into AI.

We have the Responsible Computing Club.

Our CC has a few project managers, and what their goal is, is to find a challenge, a company, a nonprofit is facing, and from there bring together a group of interdisciplinary students to solve that problem.

One who's working on software for students with intellectual developmental disabilities, they require coders, they require user researchers.

We have another project manager that is focused on an environmental problem.

They require machine learning, also some user research and design, and of course, coders.

We have a project manager that is focused on our local community, the Spartan Food Pantry.

How do we increase accessibility and awareness of this resource that exists?

So we have graphic designers and user researchers coming together to creatively figure out how to increase accessibility with the support of AI.

And the Responsible Computing Club isn't the only organization on campus developing technology responsibly.

- AI for Social Good is a class in SGSU.

So basically for that, we students come together, and we identify a real life problem which is happening in our community, and then we try to solve it with the help of AI.

Many people think AI is a negative thing, but with this class, we can use AI for doing actual good.

We designed this app, it's called Aqua Alert.

It's an AI powered pollution reporting app.

- [Narrator] With Aqua Alert, you can easily report pollution by simply clicking a picture.

- We identified this huge problem in our community right now, which is pollution in the creeks.

So whenever someone walks by a creek and finds pollution, they can just click a picture, and upload that to our app, and then our app detects the location from the picture.

It directly sends that report, and the cleaning authorities will come and then clean it.

And that was the basis of our idea.

- The Ideas Club, we're dedicated to helping students to really turn a passion project that they might have into real world difference.

We thought that the hackathon, SJHacks, would be an incredible way to streamline a pipeline for them to really turn these projects that they've created into a potential startup.

There's definitely no stopping AI being integrated into our everyday lives, as well as how we work in the industry.

The goal that we have for creating these new technologies is to, at the end of the day, help people.

But there's always the double-edged sword with everything that something can also be used for malintent, which is why we need to keep ourselves open, and informed, and educated to make sure that we're all getting the very best of what AI has to offer.

- Absolutely.

(audience applauding) Here to speak with us a bit more are our three SJSU scholars, welcome.

Please take a moment, introduce yourselves, and briefly describe your studies.

Maybe we could start with Ryan.

- Yeah, hi, my name is Ryan Nikopour.

I'm a third year major studying digital media art and computer science at SJSU.

I am the President of the Ideas Entrepreneurship Club, as well as the Co-Founder of SJHacks, which is in partnership with the Computer Science Club on campus.

- Hello, everyone.

I am Divija Puli.

I am a management information systems major.

I am currently in my final year, and I also work as a research assistant for AI for Social Good Project.

- Hi, everybody, I'm Julia.

I am a responsible technology enthusiast.

I'm majoring in data science, minoring in business, and also President of the Responsible Computing Club, which we learned briefly about in this video.

- Great.

I want to start out by asking you each, what is your take on the university's commitment, which we heard about a little bit earlier, the commitment to keeping up with new technology?

- Well, for starters, from what we've heard is that San Jose State has recently been approved as an R2 institution.

So now we're going to be seeing new prospects for research currently escalating throughout SJSU, as well as faculty and students participating in these research initiatives.

I think that San Jose State, especially with the direction that it's heading in, and that we're in the heart of Silicon Valley, is currently staying on track to ensure that we're all informed with all of these technologies.

- That's great.

What do you think, Divija?

- So I think SJSU has been really proactive in adding new AI-related courses.

While I was exploring AI tools for SJSU, I saw this SJSU AI hub webpage.

It has all the resources related to AI, AI workshops, and AI-related projects that students can read and apply them into their own coursework.

And yeah, SJSU is doing a good job with related to AI.

- Julia?

- Yeah, adding on, definitely agree with your points.

I would say there are really amazing opportunities at SJSU, and I'm glad that they are sharing these and giving us the opportunity to shape our future.

We are able to ask these important questions around AI, and figure out how it could be integrated responsibly in the student experience at SJSU.

- Yeah, and Julia, thanks for mentioning the responsibility, because I wanted to ask you all a little bit about how you consider and integrate ethics when it comes to your work around AI.

- So I think a big part is understanding how this AI really works.

And by being able to understand this black box, it allows us to understand how we can minimize bias.

So how do we ensure we are representing all groups and people in the technology we're developing and producing?

We need all voices and backgrounds in order to have ethical AI.

- That's a great response.

And to add to the ethical aspect of AI, we have AI policies.

We get on what level we can use AI into our work, and there are transparency policies, there are citation rules that we need to follow whenever we use AI into our work.

While it comes to ethical usage of the sources that you get from AI, it's very important to double check the work, and make sure that it's coming from trusted sources.

- ChatGPT or artificial intelligence should be more treated as an assistant or a friend, as said previously, and would help us focus more on the creative aspects of how we try to create our expression, rather than focusing more on the tedious parts of the process.

- Thank you for that.

And I want to get to a question that was asked from a member of our online audience.

How is AI going to be incorporated in everyday life?

- Well, I think as of right now, it's already been incorporated in our daily lives as far as I can tell.

As so many people are now using artificial intelligence, allowing us to sort of save time on the usual things that we have trouble, and to figure out a good solution for them.

- I want to highlight that AI doesn't have wisdom of its own, it just shares knowledge.

So even if we use AI to automate our daily life, we need to be mindful about how we use it, and how we incorporate that into our work.

- Yeah, well said.

Especially with computer science, I feel like it's helped elevate my learning experience, where it can be pretty challenging to get time with a professor, or pay so much money for a tutor.

And I think that's one way it's affecting my life every day.

So it's making information accessible at our fingertips, and as a result, it's going, it's playing a huge role in my everyday life.

- I want to ask you what role students play in San Jose State's journey to understanding AI?

- What I think is that we act as a bridge between the local communities and the tech industry.

When these small communities come to us with problems that they face, and we try to give them a solution using AI, so we as a students can take up these small issues, and then we can use AI and innovate with it, and then help them provide solutions.

- Yes, I think people like you, Divija, that are creating these social good projects is how I know our future is going to be so bright.

I would say, yes, AI is being used as a tool for us to elevate our work, and start thinking about the bigger questions.

- But yeah, to really add on top of the social good projects that are being worked on, is also student leaders like us that are currently talking on this panel are trying to supply students within our community, and try to inform them on these resources and opportunities such as what we've done at Ideas Club and the Computer Science Club was creating the SJHacks Hackathon, so that we can try to push forward these social good initiatives, while also encouraging students to utilize artificial intelligence within their projects as effectively and efficiently possible, which is just helping our local community, and helping each other, and try to better improve our society is what San Jose State is trying to encourage, as well as our own student body.

- I want to ask each of you to briefly just weigh in on this last one.

What do you want people to know about the prospect of AI in everyone's lives in the near future?

- AI has already become a quiet companion in everyone's daily life, but what I believe is that AI should be like your personal assistant, but not something that takes away your own critical thinking skills.

- I think that if we want to lead ourselves to a better future and have better prospects, that we should all engage in the social discourse of what AI should and should not be, as well as utilizing it in the best way and ethically possible way so that you can make an example for others as well.

- AI is data, and we still are the visionaries, the people who share these ideas, who create the ideas.

Creation is still in humanity's hands, and we have power and control over our future.

So let's move forward and continue advancing humanity.

(applause) - We are in very good hands with this future generation of leaders.

Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you, panelists, audience, and viewers for joining us for AI Today.

Watch for our next Connect the Bay on pressing issues affecting our community.

Let's stay connected.

(audience applauding) Thanks, everybody.

Good job, you guys.

All right, well done.

Thank you, thank you.

(calming music) Just like when you are making children, you have some control about how they end up behaving, but certainly not full control.

- Looking at what enables the next generation of AI to come to fruition, there's a lot of legislative components to that.

- In education circles, AI is viewed in different ways, sometimes as a friend, sometimes as a foe, sometimes as a frenemy.

- But it starts with a conversation, conversation among legislators, conversation between different government agencies, and also absolutely conversation with the creators and the companies that our partners, who are also looking for us for some guidance and understanding.

- We still are the visionaries, the people who share these ideas, who create the ideas.

Creation is still in humanity's hands.

(calming music)