Artificial Intelligence, Social Responsibility, and the Roles of the University

Technologies that use artificial intelligence (AI) have become ubiquitous. AI technologies have produced numerous economic and social benefits, such as rapidly and reliably assisting radiologists with accurate diagnostic interpretations of medical images. Many harms of AI have also been documented, such as racial biases in predictive models used in the criminal justice system, and gender discrimination in automated screening of job applications. Some AI technologies have exacerbated biases that disproportionately affect historically marginalized communities, such as LGBTQ populations and members of racial, ethnic, and religious minorities.4 Generative AI technologies are now widely available, and the potential harms are substantial: although anyone can use ChatGPT to draft messages and DALL-E to create artwork, others can use these tools to quickly produce deceptive news stories with specious images--misinformation that can spread quickly through social media.