As a student majoring in politics, philosophy and economics, Beech says people with a background in the humanities will be vital as AI technologies continue to be developed.
When Nasyve Beech first learned about ChatGPT, he was worried it would take away jobs.
“I was like, ‘This is a replacement tool,’” the fourth-year Northeastern University student remembers thinking.
But over the past few years as he’s studied the technology, he’s adopted a more even-handed mindset as he’s looked to history as a guide.
“I think we do need to be aware of the fact that the same thing happened during the first technological revolution,” he says. “We were like, ‘Oh, they are going to replace us.’ Did it? In some cases, maybe. However, we upskilled our workers and we were able to meet the talent challenge.”
Beech has now learned how one country on the other side of the world is adopting that human-centered approach.
This month, Beech traveled to Dubai to participate in a weeklong artificial intelligence fellowship to understand how the technology is being integrated into the United Arab Emirates’ public sector.
He was invited to take part as the chief of staff for the National Council on U.S.- Arab Relations, an American nonprofit that is “dedicated to improving American understanding of Arab countries, the Middle East, and the Islamic world.”
During the trip, which was hosted by the nonprofit and Amideast UAE, Beech visited some technology companies that have set up operations there, including M42 Health and Microsoft.
At M42, a Dubai-based AI-health care company, Beech got a firsthand look at how the company is using the technology to speed up drug discovery. The company has partnered with the UAE for its Emirati Reference Genome Programme.
As part of the public-private partnership, M42 is helping the UAE develop “a genomic blueprint that represents the genetic diversity of the Emirati population.” With this blueprint, the country hopes to develop better precision medical treatments.
While the company is developing cutting-edge technologies, Beech said he found the company’s ethical commitments with patient data reassuring.
“It was fun seeing them balance out the potential [the technology] has but also the ethical concerns that they are working with,” he says. “They are making sure they’re not crossing over any boundaries. It was a mixture of technical innovation and ethical innovation.”
As a student majoring in politics, philosophy, and economics, Beech says people with a background in the humanities will play an important role in the use of AI technology.
“I think the challenge of my generation going into the workforce is not how we can avoid AI. Whether we like it or not, it’s everywhere, so how can we use AI to do what we need to do faster? How can we be more productive?” How can we be more efficient? How can we rule out biases?”
At the Microsoft Technology Center, Beech learned from technical specialists and AI researchers about the value of transparency and how the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation(GDPR) affects how the company operates around the world.
He also received some prompt engineering pointers when interacting with AI chatbots.
“Give it details and examples,” he says. “That’s what they emphasized.”
One quote from Lana Noor, a data and AI technical specialist at Microsoft, stood out to Beech. She shared her perspective during a roundtable discussion featuring executives from Google, Credible X and Microsoft.
“She said, ‘AI has given me the capabilities to do things I never thought possible. It cuts boundaries for what we think is possible.’”