Human connection takes center stage at South Texas College AI summit

McALLEN — The audience Friday at South Texas College’s summit on the impact of artificial intelligence on workforce and economic development didn’t clap when panelists spoke about how much of their industry would require AI retraining.

The crowd didn’t clap when panelists talked about the sorts of things that AI is good at, and they didn’t applaud when they mentioned the reasons AI utilization is critical.

Instead, the crowd clapped when panelist Adam Copher told them what AI couldn’t do.

“We have to be careful — and I’ve heard a couple of our speakers already say it — AI will never replace human connection. Ever,” said Copher, chief nursing officer at South Texas Health System in McAllen. “And that is one of the things as a CNO that I love, is the meaningful connection with everybody I meet.”

Impact on the individual

The summit might have been focussed on AI’s economic impact, but lots of the panel talk centered around what impact the technology will have on the individual.

Panelists said they viewed AI as more of an augmentation to actual humans in the workforce rather than a replacement.

“The human is always gonna be in there,” said Reynaldo Anzaldua Jr., a cybersecurity and AI expert from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. “And you have to understand, in a certain way, that AI is not creative. It doesn’t have human intuition. So don’t get the idea that we’re gonna get replaced.”

Saying humans wouldn’t get replaced isn’t the same as saying jobs won’t get replaced.

Studies and reports differ on precisely what impact AI will have on the job market and whether jobs it eliminates will be replaced by openings elsewhere.

Those studies and reports largely agree the impact will be significant.

Panelists Friday didn’t disagree.

Reskilling pressures and economic transition

Both Copher and Anzaldua said they predict 100% of their industries’ workforces would require reskilling because of AI within the next five years.

Panelist Bob Anderson, vice president of supply chain and operations at Alps Alpine North America, put that number at 30% for his industry.

He said, however, that the change is inevitable. He also said it’s adaptable.

“You know, students maybe feel like the blacksmiths did — horse and buggy era, early 1900s — when the automobile was created. ‘Oh, we’re all going to be without jobs.’ The automotive industry created far more jobs than blacksmiths,” Anderson said. “This is similar. Embrace the change, look at what opportunities are there, and go for it.”

Ethics, security, and the urgency of adoption

The panel fielded a question from the audience on ethical concerns around AI and how ethics could be ingrained in the technology. The audience didn’t get any particularly straightforward answers.

The response was, essentially, that it’ll be complicated and likely fluid — but important.

“If we do not teach the AIs, or find a way to create a moral and ethical framework, we’re asking for trouble,” Anzaldua said.

Not exactly having that moral and ethical framework fully fleshed out doesn’t seem likely to slow the speed of AI’s adoption, based on the panel.

In at least some instances, the panel indicated, adopting AI and using it well means more than just an economic advantage — especially when competing against AI.

Anzaldua said bad actors are increasingly using AI in cyber attacks and that people simply can’t keep up unaided.

“They are so fast, so sophisticated, that the defenders have to know how to use AI on their side to defend against that. There’s no way a human can keep up with the complexity,” he said.

Higher educational entities in the Rio Grande Valley are increasingly offering coursework to train students to use and understand AI.

STC offers five courses that deal with AI within its bachelor of applied technology in computer and information technologies program, along with an AI in manufacturing course.

The college is also rolling out a committee on AI ethics.