Friday March 22, 2024
12:30-1:30 p.m.
Meeting Both In-Person and by Zoom
Dampeer Room, Second Floor of Kelvin Smith Library*
Case Western Reserve University
Dear Colleagues:
Taylor Swift must be jealous of the hype for Generative AI. Some of the claims are really remarkable – I turn on my computer in the office and Microsoft tells me that AI will help save the Amazon. Yes, really.
There may be as many, or more, reasons to worry as to be enthused about the rush to implement this technology. Last Fall, Professor Kalle Lyytinen joined us to talk a bit about these concerns and especially about the interactions between humans and machines. At one level this involves how to design organizations, but the most fundamental, and perhaps scary, dimension is that Generative AI can be seen as an “interface” that “has figured out how to talk to both humans and machines.”
Within the university we also have somewhat more prosaic concerns, such as how to prevent students from using Generative AI to write papers. Meanwhile, as scholars we must wonder if the technology offers, basically, an improved form of search engine. And we have to wonder if it will allow forms of research that will give the “AI – savvy” a big advantage over the rest of us.
Across the university, such as in the Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences, faculty are wrestling to understand what the technology can do. In an e-mail, one of my colleagues (I have a secondary appointment) suggested we could learn by asking Claude (preferred to ChatGPT) or ChatGPT itself to pretend to be a journalist writing an article about a click-bait headline, or explain the Normal Distribution, or write a draft advertisement for a job in the department, or a draft policy regarding use of ChatGPT in a genomics class, or even “a draft e-mail of activities to suggest to faculty colleagues who are interested in experimenting with ChatGPT for their work.”
It’s hard to think of issues that are potentially as significant both for society and our everyday lives. So I’m glad that we can follow up on Professor Lyytinen’s Fall talk by hosting Professor Satya Sahoo for further discussion. That may include how recent developments differ from various bubbles of interest in the past, limitations, cautionary tales, and the safety of generative AI for mission-critical applications. He will also share with us a bit of working through the kind of exercise our colleague suggested – if not quite hands-on for the audience, watching the hands at work.
In-Person and Virtual Attendance
We will meet this week in our regular location, the Dampeer Room on the second floor of Kelvin Smith Library.
We continue also to offer the meetings on Zoom. We do require pre-registering so as to avoid “zoom-bombing.” The pre-registration link is posted below.
The discussion begins at 12:30 p.m., but the room should be open no later than Noon. We try to have beverages and refreshments set up soon after that. Participants should be able to sign on to Zoom also by Noon. But please remember not much will be happening online until the talk begins at 12:30 pm. Please also be prepared to show identification when entering Kelvin Smith Library.
Zoom participants should speak up when asked for questions or comments, or submit thoughts through Zoom’s chat function. Please keep yourself muted until you are choosing to speak.
Each week we will send out this newsletter with information about the topic. It will also include a link to register (for free) for the discussion. When you register, you will automatically receive from the Zoom system the link to join the meeting. If you do not get the newsletter, you should also be able to get the information each Monday by checking http://fridaylunch.case.edu Then if you choose you can use the contact form on that website to request the registration link.
This week’s Zoom link for registration is:
https://cwru.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJErceGurTkjHNMhriAxYeqm7Jnr1Uuq92vv
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Please also e-mail padg@case.edu if you have questions about arrangements or any suggestions. Or call at 216 368-2426 and we’ll try to get back to you.
Best wishes for safety and security for you and yours,
Joe White
Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy and Director, Center for Policy Studies
About Our Guest
Dr. Satya Sahoo is an Associate Professor, in the Department of Population & Quantitative Health Sciences, CWRU School of Medicine, Director of the Biomedical & Health Informatics Ph.D. Program in the CWRU School of Medicine, Associate Professor in the Department of Neurology, CWRU School of Medicine, Associate Professor, Computer and Systems Engineering, Case School of Engineering, Associate Professor, Department of Electrical, Computer, Systems Engineering, Case School of Engineering, and on the faculty of the Cleveland Institute for Computational Biology.
Dr. Sahoo’s research is focused on developing artificial intelligence (AI) methods to analyze heterogeneous biomedical big data for translational applications. This ongoing work brings together two branches of AI: knowledge representation reasoning and machine learning algorithms to characterize brain network dynamics and electronic health records (EHR) data.
* Kelvin Smith Library requires all entrants to show identification when entering the building, unless they have a university i.d. that they can magnetically scan. We are sorry if that seems like a hassle, but it has been Library policy for a while in response to security concerns. Please do not complain to the library staff at the entrance, who are just doing their jobs.
Schedule of Friday Lunch Upcoming Topics and Speakers:
March 29: The Impact of Neighborhood and Racial Violence on Black Youth Developmental Outcomes. With Dexter Voisin, Ph.D., Dean of the Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences.
April 5: WTFentanyl? What We Need to Know About the Current Opioid Crisis. With Ryan Marino, MD, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and Psychiatry.
April 12: Conspiracy Theories and Climate Change Skepticism in Europe. With Andreas Sobisch, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Political Science, John Carroll University.
April 19: Why Our Children Struggle in School: Going Beyond the ADHD Metaphor. With Arthur Lavin MD, FAAP. Alternate Room: Kelvin Smith Library LL06
April 26: What Does It Mean for Us? Local Needs and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. With Howard Maier FAICP, Adjunct Professor of Political Science. |
