Dr. John, what’s your topic today?
“Artificial Intelligence (AI)” …. Whatever that is?
What do you mean?
Nowadays, everywhere you look there is some kind of “vague” reference to how AI is going to change our lives from now on. The news media has made it a popular buzzword, but when you try to get a clear-cut definition for AI, all you find is some nebulous statements that seem to come from a science fiction novel. Okay, I’m not against progress! In former times every elevator needed an operator to get you to the right floor. Today, this is no lon ger necessary.
Okay, but what does that have to do with the Business School?
Recently, a student submitted a seminar paper that had a large, colorful graph on the second page. It displayed time series data concerning the annual investments in five basic industries, comparing them to spending on tech nology innovation. It was a beautiful picture but there were no references indicating the source of the data. I asked the student and the reply was, “It came from the Internet.” I playfully responded, “Okay then, let’s see.” I started to Google the word Internet. The student laughed and added, “I used an AI program and it produced the graph.” Seemingly serious, I continued, “Then, you need a reference explaining that the origin of the data was AI?”
