AI-infused colleges seek to prepare grads for the 'workplace of the future'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqrIMItHyz8

To prepare students for the "workplace of the future," California's state universities are spending millions on AI, reports Linda Kinstler in the New York Times. But nobody knows what what the "workplace of the future" will look like. "Will these graduates be ahead of the curve in the new A.I. economy, or robbed of a chance to hone their critical thinking skills?"

“We are pioneering new ways to integrate technology into learning, research and student success,” proclaims San Jose State's president, Cynthia Teniente-Matson, on the university web site. Actually, it's a video of her AI avatar, dressed in a blue hoodie.

San Jose State now has an AI librarian, an AI Center for Civic and Social Good and an AI boot camp for high school students run by the business school. "AI literacy training" is an orientation requirement.

The California State University system, which includes 22 campuses, educates one in 10 of the state's workers, including many from working-class and immigrant families, writes Kinstler. The systemwide AI initiative, "anchored by a $16.9 million deal with OpenAI,"provides "500,000 licenses of ChatGPT.edu to be issued to all students, faculty and administrators." The goal is an "AI-powered" university.

Faculty members use different metaphors to describe the effect of AI, Kinstler writes.

John Sullins, a computer ethics professor, likened it to handing every student a machine gun, while Niel Shahrasbi, an information systems professor, compared it to giving them a magic wand. Robert Ovetz, a lecturer in political science, views A.I. as “an ‘intelligent’ steam shovel” that students are being trained to use. Historian Jeremy Murray called it a “smash and grab” akin to a bank robbery.

The faculty union opposes the contract with OpenAI, she writes. But professors fear they could lose their jobs if they don't integrate AI in their teaching. CSU's $2.3 billion deficit has led to mass layoffs of faculty.

Faculty are feeling anxious,” Nik Janos, a sociology professor at Chico State, told Kinstler. He got ahead of the curve by creating chatbots to mimic the views of Karl Marx, Max Weber and Émile Durkheim. Students are encouraged to question the bots. "He also reduced the number of writing assignments longer than a paragraph and developed ones that required students to hand in their A.I. chat logs instead," writes Kinstler.

Gov. Gavin Newsom is pushing to incorporate A.I. into every level of education to prepare "a highly skilled, diverse work force that can drive California’s A.I.-powered economy." Are young people who can't write more than a paragraph what employers really want?

AI has the potential to improve the value of higher education, if universities are willing to rethink their "processes and priorities," says Michael B. Horn. To prepare students for the workforce, give them real-world work experience via externships, internships and apprenticeships.