Authored By: Aadeesh Sharma and Prof. PB Sharma
If one thing that has created great interest in the minds of people around the world, young and old, and of all walks of life, it is the advent of AI, commonly referred as Artificial Intelligence. The AI revolution is sweeping across the globe and covering all sectors of economic activities and personal and professional endeavours. Be it mobile hand set, laptop, IoT connected devices and systems or tomorrows health informatics, large data analytics and decision-making systems for planning, design and manufacturing, service, supply chain management or governance tomorrow, everywhere AI powered systems of data analytics and decision making are going to empower the people around the world with great capabilities of smart, intelligent, and optimal decision making for creating a new world of happy and blissful habitat. The capabilities of machines as well as the intelligence of man shall witness and ultra new high as we move deeper into the age of AI and virtual reality.
Threats of Data Piracy and Skill Gap for AI Adoptation are Major inhibitors:
As per the IBM Global AI Adoptation Index 2023, Data piracy (57%) and trust and transparency (43%) concerns are the biggest inhibitors of generative AI according to IT professionals at surveyed organizations not exploring or implementing generative AI. 35% also said that lack of skills for implementation is a big inhibitor. Further, one in five organizations reported that they do not have employees with the right skills in place to use new AI or automation tools and 16% cannot find new hires with the skills to address that gap.
New Challenges and Responsibilities:
However, every epoch-making technological innovation and scientific advancement brings added responsibility on the shoulders of the people. Be it nuclear power, space exploration, hyperconnectivity, and network systems of ultra-intelligent smart machines, nano-scale smart systems, and smart and intelligent materials, all call upon people to shoulder a great responsibility for their use for the larger collective good of humanity. As such with the advent of AI, a new era of responsible behaviour and responsible global citizenship must be necessarily ushered in.
Responsible human Behaviour and Responsible Global Citizenship are a must:
Needless to say, that irresponsible use of advanced science and technology could be even more devastating today than the dropping of the nuclear bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki during world war- II. The impact of the irresponsible use of technology powered by AI and driven by large data analytics in the connected world, even the hyper-connected universe tomorrow, shall play havoc to the future of humanity and shall undoubtedly pose an existential threat to the planet Mother Earth and other celestial bodies that today are giving us the bliss of the heavens from space.
Responsible Behaviour is the hardest currency:
It is this call for responsible behaviour, and ethical and professional moral conduct that is the highly valued currency as of today. The new generation of learners and their mentors both in the universities as well as in the industries, corporate, and government systems need to bear faith in this great responsibility that advanced technologies like AI bring with them for their responsible use for humanity at large.
The call for action:
The universities around the world today are undoubtedly greatly excited to offer AI and Machine Learning courses alongside with data science and large data analytics, robotics and automation and interdisciplinary courses like advanced nanoscience and technology and even more advanced layers of life sciences and biological and chemical sciences as the age of Pathbreaking Science and game-changing technology innovations has truly arrived.
The university leadership is therefore called upon to respond with great urgency by designing policies and putting them in place with effective strategies and empowered systems to inspire the new generation learners to imbibe the dimensions of ethics and professional integrity that are demanded with the empowerment of advanced science and technologies including Artificial Intelligence and its self-generative applications that are gaining great currency in the campuses of the universities around the world, including here in India. The excitement in the younger generation is undoubtedly very high and naturally so, as the university going new gen netizens are all 21st century global children who have descended on planet earth after the advent of internet and blessed with the empowerment provided by the connected world driven by technological innovations rolled out increasingly from the advent of 21st century.
Purity of Mind needed at all times:
The responsibility for maintaining purity of mind and responsible behaviour needs to nurture in every single corridors of the university campuses including the classrooms, labs, and research centers and more so in the innovation incubators coming up rapidly in the campuses of the colleges and universities. The time is also right to develop operative AI systems both for direct as well as generative AI in which the professional moral codes and ethical use of AI systems should be integrated as mandatory and integral part of the operating systems. The idea of AI on Chip can take this integration of ethical and professional codes into the development of AI on Chip, which is the future for penetration of AI for all and AI everywhere.
The author Aadeesh Sharma, currently pursuing his final year at Arizona State University has witnessed great emphasis on nurturing interdisciplinary, high tech, minds in education and research that goes beyond the classroom, to the collaborative projects and interdisciplinary pursuit of research. “Arizona State University, we are committed to a culture of academic integrity and scholarly ethics and provide a culture of academic excellence and integrity to foster and promote ethical and honest behaviour in connection with the scholarly work and interactions with peers”.
The co-author, Professor PB Sharma, who nurtured great innovations and fostered a culture of academic and research excellence with integrity and responsibility during his long innings at IIT Delhi, Delhi College of Engineering, Delhi Technological University DTU, and is nurturing an interdisciplinary environment for path-breaking scientific advancement at Amity University Gurugram, sees great potential for creating a bright and blissful future for the humanity, given the infinite potential and innovative genius of the new generation of learners and their inspired mentors.
The purpose of writing this article is to emphasize the importance of academic integrity and professional morality alongside with academic and research excellence in the university and college campuses as the era of AI has brought this great responsibility on the shoulders of young and old, more so on the new generation of learners and their peers.
The government of the day in nations of the world would also be within their charter to assert a new era of responsible human behaviour and a new dawn of integrity and professional morality as there is no escape from responding to the challenges of honesty, responsibility and integrity.
Aadeesh Sharma is pursuing his undergraduate degree in computer science at ASU, Phoenix, Arizona, USA and has been a Dean’s Scholar throughout his studies. Professor PB Sharma is an eminent academician, a former Professor of IIT Delhi, former Director of DCE, founder Vice Chancellor of DTU, past President of the Association of India Universities (AIU) and currently Vice Chancellor at Amity University Gurugram.
