TOPICS:
Curry College welcomed five AI leaders and thinkers from Microsoft’s Innovation Hub in Boston and its New England Research and Development Center to campus for an evening of learning and discussion on artificial intelligence (AI). Questions ranging from 'What is AI?', to what industries are affected the most, to how developers and users should think about ethics and privacy, were explored in both the keynote speech and the panel discussion led by Curry Board of Trustees member Anne Margulies, a former Chief Information Officer of Harvard University.
Keynote speaker Sadid Hasan, AI Lead, took the audience through key milestones of the history of technology, from the printing press in the 1400s to today, where 75 percent of the workforce uses AI in one form or another. Forty-six percent are new users in just the past six months, as an example of how the advances in AI technology are moving at a breathtaking pace.
“Things are changing fast because people see the value in these tools,” said Hassan.
During the panel discussion, Hasan, Juan Pablo Garcia Gonzalez, Principal AI Solution Architect Lead; Timothy Baggs, Principal Architect in Applied AI; Nagendra Mishr, Cloud Solution Architect; and Chris Seferlis, Director of Technology Strategy discussed how education and healthcare are the two industries that have seen significant adoption and use of AI technologies. In education, the panelists said that AI will help learning be customized to each learner’s individual needs and limitations. And in healthcare, AI tools will help alleviate some of the critical strain the industry is feeling.
Gonzalez compared AI to the eventual adoption of electrical power. “AI is a fundamental technology that will be applied across every aspect of life, just like electricity, which we don’t even think about anymore, we just reach for the light switch or expect things to turn on.”
The event was part of a series for this spring semester. The next event “How Will AI Transform MA Industries and Empower the Future” will take place on April 2, 2025, from 5 p.m. – 7 p.m.