Keith Whitfield, president of the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, is available to chat with all 31,000 students at any hour of the day or night—as long as they don’t mind talking to a digital version of him. The public research university recently unveiled the digital President Whitfield , an artificial intelligence and online avatar that can answer more than 1,000 questions about hundreds of university-related topics. Whitfield and the developers at AI Media Lab, the Nevada-based company that built the AI and avatar, hope the digital president will serve as a resource for students, employees and potential applicants.
Inside Higher Ed “UNLV President Turns Himself into an AI“
Here we have a digital AI version of the president of a college.
I see one major drawback to “training” AI bots of this type (and why I don't use it for AI blog writing either) – if people think someone is you — are you responsible for what is said? What if someone hacks your AI-alternate persona? What if your AI is too good and answers questions better than you do and you defer to the AI tool? (And could this prop people up who perhaps are past their cognitive ability to hold such a job?)
There are ethical issues that go with this as well. I'm just not sure we've completely thought through the use of AI -personas. I do know that there has been a conversation for some time about training AI bots to go to meetings for people and sadly if an AI-bot can effectively represent you in a meeting, I'd argue that no real creative problem solving is happening in that meeting. If a meeting is pointless and only one person is talking, it should be a video, not a meeting.
This “AI College President” will be something I discuss with my students, for sure as we discuss ethics and artificial intelligence.
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2 comments
I had a chat with the AI President, it was not overly impressive nor does there seem to be any danger of this kind of bot replacing a person. He was not all that smooth as a conversationalist.
I’d guess though, if you were an UNLV student had a specific question that was in the programmed repertoire, maybe you would see it useful as opposed to waiting on hold on the phone?
But I doubt my opinion holds a hill of beans. I’d really like to hear what students think. Anyone can talk to him at https://unlv.aimedialab.com/ Cool or not, Cool Cat?
Thanks for responding, Alan. I don’t know. I just sort of pretending it is the president has many issues. what happens when the president leaves and you’ve invested all of this tech in using this person and their conversation style? Does the college retain ownership of that? I’ll need to go chat. Thanks for responding and checking it out. I hope I can see you in passing at a conference or maybe you’ll travel on the road again and come visit me at my new school!