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In the past several years, artificial intelligence (AI) has gone from the territory of science fiction to a tool accessible to almost anyone with internet access. The rapidly accelerating pace of AI innovation raises many practical, ethical, and existential speculations — questions at the heart of a keynote lecture delivered by Radhika Dirks, PhD, in November at The O’Shaughnessy. 

Dirks is a global AI advisor and the CEO of both Ribo AI and XLabs, a company that aims to solve ambitious problems (“moonshots”) with technology like AI, and she was named one of Forbes’s 30 Women in AI to Watch in 2020. Her lecture, titled “The Rage of AI: The Megatrends Shaping the Future of Intelligence,” was funded through St. Kate’s Endowed Professorship in the Sciences.

“In a world reshaped by the power of AI, the very essence of liberal arts education is undergoing a remarkable transformation,” said Bindhu Alappat, PhD, dean of humanities, arts, and sciences, who introduced Dirks. “AI is not just a technological leap; it's a dynamic catalyst redefining how we explore, create, and understand our human experience.”

In her lecture, Dirk discussed the different waves of AI development, beginning with predictive AI, which primarily sifts through existing data to identify patterns and make predictions. The next wave, generative AI, goes a step further to create original content, including text, images, and videos. The third wave of AI development Dirks discussed is integrated AI, which sees the technology embedded in tools like smart glasses powered by Meta AI and AI “personalities” that people can interact with online.

The second stage, in particular, has skyrocketed in the past year with the popularity of Open AI’s ChatGPT. Released in November 2022, the system now boasts over 1.8 billion visits a month. 

Generative AI has led to an explosion of creativity, democratizing tools that were formerly out of reach. “Anybody anywhere, around the world, with simply access to their computer and the ability to type in or speak in their own language can harness the power [of AI],” Dirks said. “This is phenomenal in many ways.”

But the technology is not without its complications. Dirks discussed the problems we face as we try to cope with an influx of AI-generated media and sort out what is real from what is artificial. When AI-generated images and videos circulate around social media, they can cloud the public’s understanding of real events. 

Dirks notes that it takes some practice to be able to differentiate between what is real and what is not: “We have to rigorously train our gut and our morals,” she said. “The core skill you need in this era is intuition.” 

Another important issue is the human bias that continues to pervade AI-generated content. Dirks mentioned one case in which AI was asked to generate images of “managers” and “compassionate managers.” While the image of “compassionate managers” showed a diverse range of people, the image of “managers” was composed entirely of white men. Dirks pointed out that the bias comes from the data, not the technology. Most of the data is from the internet, which disseminates highly biased (and often inaccurate) data from a highly biased society. Nevertheless, the tendency of generative AI to replicate human prejudice presents obstacles in a technology that is often presented as a form of progress. 

In the face of all these changes, Dirks said, “You need to plant your values. This is what’s going to shape the next wave of human leaders. This is what’s going to help you update your mind: planting your values first.”

Dirks shared that her company Ribo has used AI to find potential cures for 11 types of cancer — in a shorter amount of time and with a smaller budget than previously would have been possible. She encouraged the audience to learn how to harness AI for their own purposes, and to dream big. 

“The way to embrace this technology is by starting with the ideal,” Dirks told the audience. “Where are you headed? What do you want to build? What is your vision? The beautiful thing about this is that when you start asking that question and defining where you want to go, you realize how exactly to use that technology, and it can be adapted for your needs. This is the time to think bigger. If it doesn’t sound a little crazy, you’re almost not doing anything meaningful.”  

Photos by Tara Sloane