Intelligent Approach

I remember watching the movie Blade Runner 2049 several years ago with my family. It’s a gritty sequel to an early 1980s sci-fi classic film and highlights a world where technology, like artificial intelligence, is commonplace in every activity, such as driving, environmental controls and mundane daily tasks. Even in 2017, when that movie came out, AI seemed like some impossibly futuristic innovation, but all that changed in November 2022, when ChatGPT was released for public use. Since then, the AI revolution has exploded, and what appeared unrealistic is now very much real.

Today, I use AI both professionally and personally. It has been a go-to for looking up answers on questions of the moment as well as getting quick-hit summaries from some lengthy reports. On the homefront, I have used AI to get ideas for family trips and activities. Simply put, it is an incredible resource. And with the next iteration becoming more agentic, where AI can carry out tasks for you (like driving a car or taxi, delivering a package, making travel arrangements, paying bills or taking notes in a meeting), its everyday usefulness is developing exponentially.

But the pitfalls are real, too. On the education front, some students use AI to complete assignments, passing off AI-generated content as their own. In some courses, it has become a game of cat-and-mouse between faculty and students in how AI is used and detected. While I don’t want to diminish the issues around academic integrity, banning AI from the academic experience is not really an option either, especially if we want our students to be competitive with this tool once they graduate.

That is why the College selected “Intentional AI” as its most recent cross-campus, cross-disciplinary project. Every 10 years, the College is reaccredited in order to be eligible for federal and state funding, and part of that reaccreditation process includes something called a Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) – basically a 10-year project that will help enhance the overall university experience. Twenty years ago, we created the first-year experience to help students better acclimate to campus; 10 years ago, we focused on sustainability literacy. I believe Intentional AI as a QEP will be vastly more important for our students.

A few years ago, I attended a conference on AI for university presidents. The hype at the time was the inevitability of AI replacing humans at their jobs. What became clear from the different sessions I attended was that it was not AI that was going to take your job; rather, it was the person who knew how to use AI effectively that would take your job. That’s why it is crucial for the College to incorporate AI literacy into every discipline we teach, from Management 101 to Philosophy 101. As more businesses shift their focus to AI utilization, from Fortune 500 to mom-and-pop shops, we want our graduates to be at a competitive advantage when they go out into the workforce.

Since 2023, our Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, directed by Margaret Hagood ’92, has been leading working groups and hosting workshops for faculty to get a better handle on how AI might be incorporated into their coursework and teaching practices. This fall, Calvin Blackwell, a professor of economics and former department chair, was selected to lead our QEP efforts to embed AI literacy and its ethical engagement across the curriculum (see “Five Questions” here). This work will be vital to the institution responding to student needs.

Each year, the world changes faster and faster. While some may fear that we are marching toward a Blade Runner–like dystopia driven by powerful technologies such as AI, it is the College’s place to be a center for optimism and preparation, showing students a way forward and developing skills for the present and future. That is how the College of Charleston has thrived for more than 250 years, and that is how we will continue to be successful for centuries to come.