Legislative meeting highlights plans for a school year alongside AI

By Lily Alexander @llilyalexander

Faculty at the University of New Mexico are preparing for the impact of artificial intelligence for the upcoming academic year after professors weighed its benefits and risks at a Science, Technology and Telecommunications Committee meeting on July 24.

The committee was created by the New Mexico Legislative Council in May. AI was one of three topics the committee discussed, and the subject was given additional meeting time to develop legislation.

The meeting took place at the UNM Los Alamos branch. Melanie Moses, a computer science professor, and Lydia Tapia, a professor and chair of the Department of Computer Science, represented UNM.

Tapia discussed the current AI research taking place at UNM, including in the fields of medicine and robotics. She also broke down the past, present and probable future of AI and chatbots. see Legislative page 2

“Because they’re getting easier and everywhere, it’s becoming even easier to interact with them. They’re gonna be everywhere in our lives,” Tapia said.

In the English department, Diane Thiel – Regents’ Professor and associate chair – regularly confronts AI in her work and fears its ramifications for the arts and humanities.