At the annual conference of the Phi Tau Phi Scholastic Honor Society held on May 26, a newly inducted member, Wang Xiangkui, the Chinese-American Vice President of Hostos Community College CUNY in New York, gave a speech titled “Empowering Tomorrow: Exploring the Impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) on Professions, Education, and Society”.
Originally from Taiwan, Wang Xiangkui was named one of the “Top 2024 Power of Diversity: Asian 100” by City & State this year. She holds a Ph.D. in Educational Technology from the University of Georgia and has previously served as a professor and vice president at New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) College of Education. With her responsibility for shaping the future direction of the school, she has conducted research on AI technology trends.
Wang Xiangkui first introduced Generative AI (GAI), which has the ability to create diverse content from a wide range of data, including applications in writing and visual arts. In healthcare, Generative AI can reduce medical costs and increase access to medical services for underserved populations. Researchers have used AI models to analyze X-rays and generate clinical reports, utilizing data from hundreds of thousands of X-rays for testing, with results showing no significant differences between the AI-analyzed results and actual X-ray results.
According to Wang Xiangkui, Generative AI will continue to advance, with the only distinction between AI models and human work being the much faster speed of AI. Repetitive tasks have already been largely replaced by AI, such as in the IT industry where there has been a wave of layoffs in the past two years due to companies utilizing AI for coding, making it difficult for new graduates to find jobs.
She highlighted that any repetitive task is easily replaceable by Generative AI, such as drafting legal documents or combining language with customer service to streamline processes and reduce labor costs through the use of AI.
The risks and dangers brought about by Generative AI, as mentioned by Wang Xiangkui, include job reductions, human biases, deep deception and misinformation, and data privacy breaches.
She referenced the prescient concerns from decades ago, such as science fiction writer Isaac Asimov’s “Three Laws of Robotics” introduced in his 1942 work, “Runaround,” setting behavior guidelines for robots in his works.
In offering advice on how to prevent one’s work from being replaced by AI, Wang Xiangkui emphasized the importance of understanding which technological advancements can aid productivity, creativity, imagination, and innovation to stay ahead and not be replaced.
As a vice president overseeing the school’s development direction, Wang Xiangkui stressed the importance for higher education institutions to proactively plan and design curricula to avoid the scenario where students graduate only to be replaced by AI in their jobs, a challenge faced by universities.