Symposium focuses on human-centered AI
Is artificial intelligence pulling us forward, or leaving us behind?
That was the question in the spotlight this month as leaders from industry, academia, public policy, and civil society gathered on campus for the 4th Annual Boston College Analytics and Industry Symposium, a two-day event hosted at Yawkey Center by the Woods College of Advancing Studies' master's degree programs in applied economics and applied analytics.
This year's event—which featured a slate of influential speakers and panelists including Nobel laureate Paul Romer, BC's Seidner University Professor of Finance and founding director of the Center for the Economics of Ideas at the Carroll School of Management—focused on presenting a balanced, human-centered conversation on emerging developments, real-world applications, and responsible innovation surrounding AI.
In particular, the participants considered from a number of perspectives a central question: Will AI be a force that unites and uplifts, or one that fractures and divides?
Symposium organizer and Woods College Associate Dean Aleksandar (Sasha) Tomic: 'Choices we make in developing and deploying AI will define whether we will be able to avoid repeating the experience of the Industrial Revolution and its mid-term turmoil.'
"The answer depends on the choices we make," said Woods College Associate Dean for Strategy, Innovation, and Technology Aleksandar Tomic, director of the applied analytics and applied economics graduate programs, who organized the event with WCAS faculty members Arvind Sharma and Lawrence Fulton.
"Artificial Intelligence is quickly transforming the world around us at a scale not seen since the Industrial Revolution and the Gilded Age," Tomic said. "While there is a strong promise of advancement and benefit to the human race, there are also parallels to that time that are disconcerting.
"As Pope Leo XIII warned in Rerum Novarum issued in 1891 in response to changes brought about by Industrial Revolution, 'It is no easy matter to define the relative rights and mutual duties of the rich and the poor, of capital and of labor. And the danger lies in this, that crafty agitators are intent on making use of these differences of opinion to pervert men’s judgments and to stir up the people to revolt.' Arguably, we are witnessing this today. So, choices we make in developing and deploying AI will define whether we will be able to avoid repeating the experience of the Industrial Revolution and its mid-term turmoil. If we develop and deploy AI in ways that ensure accountability, benefits, and community, keeping people at the forefront, we may mitigate the potential for significant suffering in the near and midterm."
Woods College Assistant Professor of the Practice of Applied Economics Arvind Sharma (center), co-organizer of the event, chats with attendees.
With those key questions in mind, symposium speakers and panelists examined both the promise and the peril of AI: its capacity to expand human potential, improve global well-being, and drive scientific discovery, alongside the risks of displacement, inequity, misinformation, and geopolitical tension.
Topic areas ranged from AI in applied research and the hiring and managing of talent to the diplomatic, informational, militaristic, and economic dimensions of the AI world order.
In addition to Romer, participants included Hema Retty, managing director of AI at Blackrock; Mark Esposito, chief economist at micro1.ai and member of the Next Frontier of Operations initiative at the World Economic Forum; Igor Perisic, VP for engineering at LinkedIn, and contributor to the AI, privacy, and data working group at OECD.AI; Juliana Lisi, parter and associate director at Boston Consulting Group; Sheamus McGovern, founder and CEO of Open Data Science Conference; LTC Nathaniel D. Bastian, program manager at DARPA and deputy director of the Robotics Research Center at the U.S. Military Academy; Marc Chalé, research associate at the Army Cyber Institute and data science branch chief of the Department of the Air Force Studies and Analysis; Tucker Hamilton, national security expert, technology executive, and founder of the National Aerospace Robotics Competition; and Alvin Wang Graylin, author of Our Next Reality and digital fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI).
The event included poster presentations by graduate students in applied analytics and economics.
Also, Jimena Luna, global AI policy lead at Lenovo; Anthony Cirino, senior consultant at EY (Ernst and Young); Scott McNewal, VP for innovation operations and analytics at Mass General Brigham; Nurtekin Savas, VP of global credit infrastructure, dat,a and AI at PayPal; Benjamin Schroeder, chief technology officer at VODA.ai; Gary Arora, chief architect of Cloud and AI solutions at Deloitte; and Chris Fulton of the Air Force Institute of Technology.
The event included multiple research project poster presentations in applied economics and analytics developed by by Woods College graduate students, as well as career networking sessions.
"Ultimately," Tomic said, "this symposium invited participants to reflect on the values, governance frameworks, and collaborative approaches required to build a future in which AI strengthens human dignity, opportunity, and resilience."