Manjeet Rege, a professor in the School of Software Engineering and Data Science at the University of St. Thomas, spoke to FOX 9 about the rapid rise of artificial intelligence and the need for ethical oversight and increased consumer awareness. As AI becomes more integrated into daily life and the workplace, people need to become more knowledgeable about it and more thoughtful about how they use data, Rege explains.
From the conversation:
Reggae: I have been working in the field of AI and data science for the past 20 years. When I started, AI was mainly used for narrow applications. For example, when you visit Amazon or watch something on Netflix, a behind-the-scenes recommender engine automatically unlocks it. But over the past three years, we’ve moved from this behind-the-scenes process to a more mainstream one. With large language models and generative AI, we can generate text, music, video, and all the examples we’ve seen so far.
So this huge leap forward that we’ve seen in just the last three years would have been unimaginable 10 years ago. It also raises ethical and governance issues, so it’s important to be proactive. And I recognize that there is always a portion of my audience that feeds off of fears and concerns about work. So this book basically talks about that.
Lauren Andrego: Does it feel like the Wild West now that AI is here?Every app, every website I use now seems to have some plug-in AI functionality. It feels almost unregulated. So, from your perspective, what do you think most urgently needs to be regulated right now?
Reggae: We need more regulation. There is currently an AI law in the EU, which I also talked about in the book. AI is pervasive around the world, so when you’re browsing something online, you’re using an app. That data could be collected and used by apps based in India or China, for example. So we need more regulation, and even consumers need to be more aware of what information they’re volunteering. Upload your financial information to ChatGPT and it will be used for training purposes.
Kelly O’Connell: Indeed, that’s what you mentioned. There’s a lot of anxiety, and some of it is understandable, because it’s so unknown, like taking over a job or things. You talked about being AI conscious, and I think we all want to get better at this. We know it won’t go anywhere. So what are the top tips for people to become better consumers when it comes to AI?
Reggae: This week I spoke with the CEO of a company with 1,800 employees around the world who said he plans to lay off 10% of his workforce by the end of the year. When asked who those employees are, they are employees who have not implemented AI. What I’m saying here is that you have to become AI savvy. That’s number one. The second is to rely on skills that cannot be transferred to AI. …
