Education in the Age of AI

For decades, artificial intelligence (AI) has been a cornerstone of industries such as computer science, data analytics, game design, and more. For those outside of these fields, AI has been (until recently) a science-fiction buzzword, a concept tied to the far-off future.

With the introduction of accessible generative artificial intelligence, such as ChatGPT and Claude, AI is no longer reserved for just the highly technical. Now, students and researchers can harness the power of AI tools in their studies; marketers and content creators can cultivate content at incredible speeds; designers can expand their horizons by crowdsourcing inspiration.

AI is no longer a thing of science-fiction. It’s a present-day reality, reshaping industries and revolutionizing the way we learn and teach. In a world where someone can create code without ever learning programming languages, or craft an essay with a few quick prompts, what importance does education hold? What value is there to learning in an AI world?

Standing on the precipice of perhaps the single-most important innovation of the modern era, those in higher education are bracing for impact.

I believe AI will be incredibly transformative, creating as many opportunities (for those that are willing to adapt) as there will be for jobs that may be replaced by AI. —Feyl

James Brusseau, PhD, is a professor of ethics in Pace’s Dyson College of Arts and Sciences, so he’s accustomed to big questions that don’t have answers. “What does it mean to think? What does it mean to be a person? If a machine acts just like a person, does it count as a person?” he asks. “AI allows me to talk about these philosophical questions scientifically.”

Many of the philosophical questions that have arisen with the popularity of generative AI have to do with not only how this will impact careers, but how it impacts career preparation. Are there students getting degrees in fields that will be ‘taken over by AI’? How can educators ensure students are doing their own work and learning the skills they need? What skills can’t AI replace?

Pace has been committed to the study of AI for decades, primarily from a computer science perspective. There are faculty exploring the applications and theory of AI across the fields of healthcare, forensics, UX, fashion, game design, and more. Pace’s Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems is in the process of getting approval for two graduate degree programs and one undergraduate degree program in AI. Recent initiatives include the Seidenberg AI Internship Experience, and the ongoing Seidenberg Undergraduate Research, where students collaborated with faculty on AI-related projects (with presentations slated for the fall).

Here at Pace, we are focused on reskilling and upskilling our students, emphasizing the development of creativity and emotional intelligence to prepare them for the new opportunities that AI will bring. —Krislov

You can't talk about AI at Pace without mentioning Christelle Scharff, PhD. Scharff has been studying AI throughout her entire career, diving into research topics related to machine learning and bias in datasets, and most recently she became director of the newly launched AI Lab on the New York City Campus.

As someone who has been in the trenches with AI for years, Scharff understands why it’s suddenly become such a buzzword. “I believe that the big deal is that the tools related to AI are now in the hands of everybody, while earlier advances were confined and used by people in tech,” she explains.

This widespread applicability of AI has sparked growing concerns about its far-reaching impact on the job market. The rapid advancements in AI technology are not just theoretical—they are transforming industries and creating new opportunities, as well as challenges, for today's workforce.

AI will transform the labor market by automating routine tasks but also creating new job categories. —Krislov

Opinions on how the workforce will change vary from the cynical to the optimistic, but there is one constant: AI will have an impact, one way or another. “AI will transform the labor market by automating routine tasks but also creating new job categories,” president of Pace University Marvin Krislov says.

Scharff agrees that not only will new jobs arise, but AI will become a standard tool for many industries. “We already see prompt engineer as an emerging job,” she says, referring to professionals who know how to craft effective inputs for these AI models. “Everybody will have to be able to use AI and this will be a differentiator. Large Language Models (LLMs) and image generators will permit professionals to be more productive and be used as supportive tools in all possible sectors.”

Brusseau notes some of the more unique applications of AI to industries some might not expect, indicating that how various sectors might grow or change is still hard to predict. He and Scharff collaborated on a study of AI as it relates to African fashion. “We wrote a paper about how AI can be used to help clothing designers produce new kinds of clothes,” he explains. “This is a terrific opportunity for someone from Pace to find or create a kind of job for themselves, using AI to make fashion.” More recently, he studied how artists are using AI to infuse audience interactions into musical performances, by monitoring audience biometrics and using that to inform the musical piece. “This new way of making music opens opportunities for careers combining AI, music, and performance arts.” And in a way more ethically sourced than silly songs generated solely by AI.

AI tools should permit students to extend their knowledge and infuse curiosity, instead of just providing answers to copy and paste. —Scharff

Considering this, the role of higher education firmly lies in ensuring students understand these tools to better incorporate them into the fields they are preparing to enter. “Here at Pace, we are focused on reskilling and upskilling our students, emphasizing the development of creativity and emotional intelligence to prepare them for the new opportunities that AI will bring,” Krislov explains.

University Librarian Steven Feyl has been watching the expansion of generative AI with interest, curious to see how it impacts learning. Even so, he too shares this optimistic view. “I believe AI will be incredibly transformative, creating as many opportunities (for those that are willing to adapt) as there will be for jobs that may be replaced by AI.”

‘For those that are willing to adapt’ is a key differentiator.

Early adopters who understand the opportunities and limitations of AI are more likely to reap the long-term benefits. Brusseau believes this is also the case when it comes to education. “The big change that we’re going to see from AI is not so much in how education works—it’s going to be that students more than ever are going to be responsible for their own education,” he says. “Students who want to learn a lot are going to be able to learn more information at a quicker rate, while those who are clever and just want to get through will also be empowered to do that.”

The role of higher education is to teach critical thinking, creativity, and ethical decision-making.

Feyl similarly sees the benefits and challenges of AI, especially in higher education, as a double-edged sword. “I characterize generative AI as both a daunting opportunity and a daunting challenge,” he explains. “The potential that AI presents for ideation, information retrieval, resource discovery, and the correlation of ideas is just incredible. This is juxtaposed with the daunting challenge to keep the human component at the center in the research process, to be constantly critical of AI, and to adapt to the speed at which AI tools are developing.”

That is where higher education comes in. Education is not built only on the premise of understand course material. We have Google (and now generative AI) for simple information retrieval. The widespread use of AI is a reminder that the purpose for higher education is in the depths of understanding, the cultivation of the human abilities to learn, think, and reason. “The role of higher education is to teach critical thinking, creativity, and ethical decision-making—I will always preach an emphasis on the humanities,” insists Krislov. “While AI can handle many technical tasks, at Pace, we focus on preparing students to use these tools responsibly and understand the broader implications of their use, ensuring they are ready to navigate an AI-driven world.”

Scharff takes the perspective that AI is not something that will replace learning but is a tool that can be used to enhance it. “AI tools should permit students to extend their knowledge and infuse curiosity, instead of just providing answers to copy and paste.” From a faculty standpoint, these tools can also help educators automate tasks that allow them to instead focus on personalized attention. “AI can help faculty generate slides, quizzes, and even grading, providing them with more time to give individual attention to students and creating engaging experiences.”

The potential that AI presents for ideation, information retrieval, resource discovery, and the correlation of ideas is just incredible. —Feyl

Though he generally considers AI overall positive, even Brusseau acknowledges there will be complications. “The risk of artificial intelligence is that students will become careless. They will let AI, in essence, do their work,” he says. “That’s a legitimate downside. On the other side, AI does allow us to learn about things very quickly. I think the big change will be growing inequality in educational outcomes.”

Studies continue to reveal that AI detection tools do not accurately detect AI use and plagiarism, so the responsibility for educators lies less in policing AI use and more in promoting ethical use and AI literacy. “Ensuring that students are genuinely learning and not just relying on AI for their assignments is a top priority,” Krislov explains. “At Pace, we emphasize academic integrity, so we’re proactive in addressing issues like plagiarism and the misuse of AI tools to maintain the authenticity of student work.”

Scharff’s recent work with AI in African fashion had a deep tie to the truth that these tools have implicit bias that must be accounted for. “The main concerns related to AI and ethics are biased data that do not represent the diversity of our world, even in terms of languages,” she says. “Another concern is about privacy. We want to be sure that our data is used the way we want it to be and be aware of the possible intended uses.”

The main concerns related to AI and ethics are biased data that do not represent the diversity of our world, even in terms of languages. —Scharff

This means that the conversation about AI in higher education cannot just be about plagiarism, but also data privacy, algorithm bias, and the ethical impact of AI on individuals, such as artists whose work was used without their consent to train image generating models. Pace has even formed a dedicated committee of faculty and staff, from AI specialists from the Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems, faculty within the humanities, and staff across many departments. Staff co-chair Beth Gordon, PhD, Pace’s Chief Information Officer, is helping steer the AI Committee to build on the groundwork laid by her and her colleagues at ITS, focusing on the ethical integration of AI at the University, from academic integrity to AI literacy across the entire Pace Community.

We aim to prepare our students not just to adapt to an AI-driven world but to lead in it, ensuring they are equipped for successful and ethical careers. —Krislov

While the AI Committee is diving into larger, institution-wide questions, there are plenty that staff, faculty, and students can do to equip themselves with AI skillsets and expand their AI literacy. Starting this fall, a six-week module dedicated to AI (designed by AI Committee faculty co-chair and Seidenberg professor David Sachs, EdD) has been incorporated into the CIS 101 curriculum and there are wider plans to expand this content into University-wide training. For faculty concerned about testing student knowledge in this new AI era, Brusseau has a simple, but effective, recommendation. “I think that what universities can do is return to the old tradition of oral exams,” he suggests. “That will help students focus on learning from AI instead of letting AI do the learning for them.”

At the heart of the conversation about artificial intelligence is this concept of learning. AI models learn from data, but their understanding is limited by the data they are given and the fact that they are not human. When a human thinks, information is filtered through their personal perspectives, contexts, and emotions. Further, AI cannot initiate thought. The decision to begin thinking remains uniquely human.

...Students more than ever are going to be responsible for their own education. —Brusseau

As optimistic as Brusseau is about the impact of AI on the world, he still believes there is a value to human thought that AI at present cannot replicate. “AI, more than anything else, is just a tool,” he says. “That is, I do not think it is capable of producing thought as you and I do.”

So long as the cultivation of human thought remains a pinnacle of higher education, universities and colleges still have a crucial role to play. Universities like Pace that embrace AI as a tool of innovation, while balancing the importance of human critical thinking and ethical usage, will equip the never generation of thinkers who will go further, equipped with AI, but not reliant on it. “At Pace, we are committed to integrating AI responsibly into our curriculum and research,” Krislov says. “By doing so, we aim to prepare our students not just to adapt to an AI-driven world but to lead in it, ensuring they are equipped for successful and ethical careers.”

This article was organized, outlined, and edited with the assistance of a custom GPT from OpenAI. However, the content and insights are entirely human-generated.