Provost’s Visiting Distinguished Faculty Lecture

On Wednesday, February 12 at 4:30 p.m., Dr. Patricia Flatley Brennan, this year’s Provost’s Distinguished Visiting Faculty Fellow at the School of Nursing, presented: Preparing for Next Generation AI: Integrating Culture, Context, and Characteristics. Until recently, artificial intelligence advanced in distinct generations or “waves,” driven by increasingly sophisticated methods. Now, with widespread access to complex AI models, a focus on methods alone is no longer sufficient. AI development (and developers!) must also consider culture (shared values, beliefs, and behaviors), context (social and physical environments), and individual characteristics (unique traits). Humanities, arts, and social sciences provide insights into these factors, helping shape AI models and their applications. Lessons from software design offer strategies to efficiently and intentionally enrich AI, making it more relevant, responsive, and reflective of the environments where it will be used. The next generation of AI will thrive through collaborations between developers and experts from these fields.