Jin Cant, a computer science student at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, likens the emergence of artificial intelligence to the discovery of electricity. This is a modern-day Rosetta Stone that will allow future generations to unlock new inventions that the current generation didn’t need.
“In the days before cameras, if you wanted to take a picture of your family, you had to pay someone to do it and it would take hours,” said Kant, president and founder of the student-led UST Nexus AI Club. The club hopes to move the conversation about artificial intelligence beyond ChatGPT and show how it can be used ethically for the public good. “Since the invention of the camera, family photos have become more widely available and readily available for anyone to view.”
While some Americans seem to be balking at the introduction of AI, which is already taking away certain jobs, Kant and other club members are calling on up to 100 up-and-coming young creators to lend themselves to a healthy cause during the inaugural Tommie Buildfest. Starting Friday night, the Nexus AI Club will host a free 24-hour “hackathon” for individuals or teams of creators to use AI to work on new websites and software applications related to hunger, nutrition, and food security.
The setup is as competitive as the brainstorming session, and prizes will be awarded on Saturday night. The Nexus AI Club is recruiting student participants from high school to graduate school on and off St. Thomas, as well as non-profit organizations interested in profiting from creativity.
The club has had at least initial discussions with Tommy Shelf, which provides on-campus food giveaways, Loaves and Fishes, which provides free meals throughout the Twin Cities, and The Food Group, which operates a food bank, a mobile grocery store converted from a school bus, and a farm-based agriculture program.
Nonprofits do not need to participate in Buildfest to benefit from the results, but an optional 30-minute focus group session beforehand helps students understand each institution’s mission and needs.
“The organizations that will probably benefit the most from this are the ones with the least resources and the least connections,” said Jonathan Kaiser, vice provost for academic technology and AI enablement in the College of Education and faculty advisor to the club. “We will be hosting participants and community partners through the day.”
The goal is to create tools that reduce undernourishment in communities.
That might mean building apps that help families plan nutritious meals, make the most of their food budgets, and track SNAP food impact, or creating new internal tools for food banks and nonprofits to track inventory, predict demand, and optimize distribution. It could also mean building a platform that aggregates nutrition research and other AI-powered solutions to food insecurity.
Non-coding people are also welcome
Kant pointed out that major technology companies such as social media platform Reddit and payment processing company Stripe have been hosting their own technology hackathons for years, with the goal of profiting from the explosion of competitiveness and creativity that coalesces into compressed timelines.
Tommie Buildfest opens Friday at 8pm, judging begins Saturday at 6pm, and awards will be awarded two hours later.
No coding experience is required, and projects can combine design, business and technical skills, making these areas suitable for people outside the computer programming community, Keiser said. Working adults can also participate as mentors.
The hackathon is co-branded with Lovable, a Swedish startup that describes itself as a facilitator of “vibe coding,” or software development that uses natural language in place of core coding skills. Lovable provides construction credits, or tokens, for each participant, reducing AI computation costs for higher-level programming.
“I’m not a trained programmer or developer,” Kaiser said. “I don’t know anything about it, but you can build something that works really well just with natural language. That’s the great thing about AI. AI can do this perfectly.”
Is that a blessing or a horror? Kaiser acknowledges that for most people, both may be true.
“I think it would destabilize our society in some ways. Where there is creative destruction, this is how things happen,” Kaiser said. “I think our social contract will change. I think in 15 years, instead of working 40 hours a week, we’ll be working 30 or 20 hours a week, and that requires a social conversation.”
“We can democratize knowledge”
AI has already been blamed for eliminating some entry-level white-collar jobs, as well as software development and customer service jobs. Last year, the World Economic Forum revealed in its Future of Work report that 40% of global employers surveyed expected to cut jobs in certain sectors and half expected to move some workers into new roles as AI reshapes job needs. Most employers recognize that they need to “upskill” or retrain their employees to keep up with changes in their industry.
Rather than a dystopian, jobless future controlled by ruthless robots, Kant predicts a time when AI bots will read vast amounts of public data on underreported topics such as women’s health, conduct original research, and fill knowledge gaps for the betterment of humanity.
“We can democratize knowledge,” said Kant, one of eight founding members of the Nexus AI Club. “This tool can enable many new things that we don’t even think about right now and can’t even imagine yet.”
The caveat, Kant said, is that instead of allowing some stakeholders to exploit technology for their own benefit, everyday people need to advocate for ways to fully understand and use technology ethically.
Participation in the hackathon is free and includes snacks and meals, but registration is required. Individuals who register alone can join a team at the start of Buildfest. Participants must bring laptops, chargers, and any other hardware they wish to use.
Students consider this year to be a bit of a test.
“Next year, we’re hoping to have it from Friday evening to Sunday evening, which is 48 hours,” Kaiser said.
For more information, visit ustnexus.club/buildfest.
