Manhattan University announces on its website that AI is now available as a minor for all schools across the university.
MANHATTAN.EDU / COURTESY
Erioluwa Akin-Salami, Contributor
Beginning this fall semester, Manhattan University (MU) will offer a new minor in Artificial Intelligence (AI), open to students across all schools at the university. The program is designed to provide interdisciplinary instruction in the fundamentals of AI.
The Quadrangle spoke with members of the MU community for their perspective on the universities’ decision to implement this change.
When asked about the new program, Michael Grabowski, Ph.D., director of the game design and production majors and professor in the communication, sound, media arts and film department, explained that while public concerns are real, students may still need to be able to adapt to the changes in technology.
“We cannot pretend that AI does not exist,” Grabowski said. “As with most technologies, there are always benefits and risks. Thus, with the addition of this minor, we are given the opportunity to look critically at where we should and should not use AI.”
Within the MU community and amongst the public, there is growing concern that AI will destroy creative jobs such as scriptwriting. However, Grabowski believes that it is unlikely that AI will replace human beings in aspects of writing and art creation. The reason behind his belief – AI lacks humanity.
“Human beings are storytelling creatures,” Grabowski said. “Humans have the advantage of experience that AI lacks, and people want to read and watch literature that has a human feel to them.”
Grabowski has an interdisciplinary academic background, including studies in electrical engineering and history, alongside his work in the liberal arts. He continued to express support for liberal arts majors considering a minor in AI.
“These [humanitarian] disciplines have become even more important [with the development of AI],” Grabowski said. “Nowadays, companies hire these majors, such as English or philosophy, to train and work alongside their AIs. It will give them an advantage.”
Some students at MU hold a similar stance to Grabowski. In fact, Isaiah Merisier, a senior electrical engineering student at MU, told The Quadrangle how he feels AI related courses could be applied by liberal arts students.
“Especially political science majors, because these are the people who will make the AI policies,” Merisier said. “I want the people, who will one day be in the room where they make decision on AI policy, to be well informed.”
Another common concern surrounding AI is its environmental impact; one Merisier said he has witnessed firsthand.
“When I worked at a power plant, there were measures to clean out the emissions that come out of it,” Merisier said. “But from what I understand, there is barely any of that there at data centers and AI facilities. All of it causes pollution”
Contrary to this on June 4, the United Nations published a statement on the impact of AI on the environment, in the context of the global climate crisis.
“Artificial Intelligence is not only responsible for worrying amounts of earth-warming greenhouse gases: the technology’s environmental footprint is also expanding at a pace that could strain the planet’s natural resources,” The UN stated. “Greenhouse gas emissions, particularly those linked to training large models, tend to be prioritised, but this approach overlooks other environmental costs… [As for energy use] the scale is striking:one widely used AI service is estimated to process around 2.5 billion prompts per day, consuming hundreds of gigawatt-hours of electricity each year.”
Lawrence Udeigwe, Ph.D., professor of mathematics and the director of integrative programs for ARCH Iniative at MU shared the concern that AI has detrimental effects on the environment, but he does not believe this kind of change is unprecedented. Considering the creation of the internet and cars, he believes that every change, including AI, is disruptive but will stabilize with time.
“AI is a new phenomenon,” Udeigwe said. “Everything that changes starts [off] jagged.”
Udegiwe also believes AI is something all majors should familiarize themselves with.
To graduating students concerned that AI could limit their job prospects, Udeigwe told The Quadrangle that he believes AI is eliminating some jobs while creating new ones, and that this shift will continue over time.
“It is revealing to us the jobs we should not be doing anymore,” Udeigwe said. “We used to send money through people, workers, now from the comfort of our phones we are able to transfer money anywhere. People lost jobs because of this, but so many more gained.”