AI

Solon Simmons looks for win-win opportunities in his role as Faculty Senate president

Melanie Balog — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 16:17:28 +0000

Solon Simmons looks for win-win opportunities in his role as Faculty Senate president Melanie Balog Wed, 09/04/2024 - 12:17

Solon Simmons, professor of conflict and analysis in the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, enters his first year as the ��AV Faculty Senate president. At George Mason since 2006, Simmons has been a member of the senate for eight years. He also has served, among other roles, as interim dean for the Carter School and the university’s vice president for global strategy during the pivotal start-up years of Mason Korea.

The George caught up with Simmons to discuss the senate’s recent achievements, issues the group will be tackling this year, and how his academic expertise might serve him as Faculty Senate president.

Simmons

What do you consider some of the Faculty Senate’s major achievements in recent years, and what issues do you envision being focal points for the senate in 2024-25?

One thing that becomes immediately clear when you look at the history of the Faculty Senate here at Mason is the strong legacy of independent leaders who have served there. In just the past decade, we have seen significant growth in collaboration between faculty and administrative leaders. What stands out to me are the roles that senate leaders played in co-chairing the last presidential search, chairing the recent provost search, and in establishing new norms for the acceptance of financial support [of the university]. Faculty representatives have served on every major initiative in the university from promoting the rights of term faculty, to supporting Mason’s COVID-19 response, to developing the conversation about how to have difficult conversations across lines of difference.

This coming year will bring many challenges, but my hope is that we focus on our people, using evidence to center employee engagement and placing proper value on the contributions of both faculty and staff and helping to modernize and update our concept of what a university is for. We are here to pursue both excellence in knowledge and access to wisdom, and all of us—staff, student workers, tenured faculty, term faculty, and administrative/professional faculty—have an important role to play. The faculty job is changing, but in an era of automatic thinking and information overload, it is more important than ever.

How do think your expertise in peace and conflict resolution will serve you both within the Faculty Senate and as the faculty representative on the Board of Visitors?

I direct what’s called the Narrative Transformation Lab. Our baseline assumptions are that emotions matter as much as arguments do and that facts are only intelligible when situated in relation to values. From what I have seen of our new board members, they are very principled people who want the best for the university as articulated from their own point of view. Assuming that everyone brings the best intentions to the case makes it easier to look for those win-win opportunities that are almost always available if you search for them, and no one should forget that win-win is a peace and conflict resolution concept if not THE concept that defines the field.

From a global perspective, American universities have a real advantage over most other countries. Our decentralized structure allows and even forces each of our institutions to serve as global laboratories for the organization of knowledge, producing an intellectual ecology in which we have developed and sustained most of the best universities in the world. Look at the data. Whether it’s Nobel Prizes or global university rankings, the world still looks to the U.S., and increasingly the U.S. looks to Mason. The board members know what a great value proposition Mason is and they have no intention to compromise that. Our job is to make sure intentions match the available opportunities and to keep faculty centered in that conversation.

How significant of an issue is AI for Mason faculty? What sort of discussion is the Faculty Senate having about the implications of AI?

I’m really excited about AI, especially that part that works with language and writing. I like the metaphor of the old Texas Instruments calculator that people often use about the 1970s. We used to think of using a calculator as “cheating” just like we think of writing with the aid of a language model today. I use AI almost every day now, and I find it makes me that much smarter. It feels like what it was like in the ‘90s to start using Google and the other search engines that we had back then. You can just do so much more. Over the summer, the leadership team had a great presentation from a colleague at the University of Michigan who made a point that stuck with me: all good uses of AI require a human-in-the-loop. Maybe someday machines will tap into some form of universal consciousness and discover how to do without us, but so far, it looks like only the human being has the wisdom, contextual awareness, and moral judgment that is necessary to apply knowledge to meaningful problem solving.

If AI is not something to be afraid of but something to use, nevertheless, it really is time to wake up. What we mean by knowledge is changing and our modes of assessment will have to change along with that. It seems to me that AI places emphasis on lived experience and the present moment that will challenge all of us to grow in ways that will be both painful and exhilarating.

Since the pandemic, Faculty Senate meetings have taken place entirely on Zoom. Will that continue? Do you find that meeting virtually leads to greater engagement from senators and from faculty around the university?

There is nothing like face-to-face interaction, but we will continue to use Zoom for the actual Faculty Senate meetings. I think it’s just part of the new normal of higher education. Not only can a senator access the meeting from any one of our many campuses and locations (including Mason Korea), but this format allows for a much larger array of visitors to attend as well. I think the format expands the value of the senate to the university community and makes it easier and more efficient for us to manage our deliberations.

You’re coming up on two decades at the university. What are the major differences between the George Mason you came to in 2006 and the George Mason of today?

I will admit that the first I heard of ��AV was its famous Cinderella Final Four run in 2006, the year I arrived. Back then it was described almost like a commuter college with peaks or pillars of excellence. Now the university feels like a major player. In 2006, we were known for a variety of innovative and special programs like the old multidisciplinary Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (now the Carter School) that I joined. Now, we are good at almost everything we do, and getting better each year. I like President Washington’s line that this is the most competitive university environment in the country, and still we excel and grow. This is a great place to work and a great place to be a professor. My goal is to make the job even better.

Editor's note: Earlier versions of this story gave Simmons' rank as associate professor. We regret the error.

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��AV’s Amarda Shehu appointed inaugural Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer

Melanie Balog — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 11:37:10 +0000

��AV’s Amarda Shehu appointed inaugural Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer Melanie Balog Wed, 09/04/2024 - 07:37

FAIRFAX, VA - ��AV has named Associate Vice President for Research for the Institute for Digital Innovation (IDIA) Amarda Shehu as the university’s inaugural vice president and chief artificial intelligence officer (CAIO). In this role, Shehu will lead the strategy and implementation of AI across research, academics, and partnerships for the university, maximizing opportunity and adoption in addressing the world’s grand challenges while leading on ethical considerations, governance, and risk mitigation.

“As the number one public university in Virginia and a top 10 U.S. university for innovation, as well as the first to offer a School of Computing and degree in cybersecurity engineering, George Mason is driven by inclusive access to research and education that provides insight and inspires solutions. There is an institution-wide recognition of the centrality of AI to the future of knowledge creation, scientific discovery, creative expression, workforce development, and campus operations,” said Andre Marshall, ��AV vice president for research, innovation, and economic development. “By collaborating with other units to build an AI growth roadmap for the university, Dr. Shehu will be a transformative force in taking George Mason to the top of this field and partnering in the region to advance the Commonwealth of Virginia.

As George Mason’s inaugural Vice President and CAIO, and one of the first at a U.S. university, Shehu will spearhead university-wide research and programs, attract AI talent, and ensure compliance with ethical standards and regulatory requirements. Shehu will work with the university’s chief risk officer and chief information officer on tools and platforms, as well as governance to ensure data privacy and security. She will also collaborate with academic divisions on new majors and expanded coursework.

“I knew when I started my research in this field over 20 years ago that AI would unleash enormous speed and power in innovation, which is at the heart of what drives George Mason,” Shehu said. “Power lies in our ability to harness this technology in sustainable and democratic deployment that improves society and the human condition. I am thrilled to work alongside brilliant faculty, students, staff, and industry partners to position George Mason at the forefront of AI in the Commonwealth of Virginia.”

Shehu is a professor in the Department of Computer Science in the College of Engineering and Computing, where she also serves as an associate dean for AI Innovation. She is the inaugural founding co-director of ��AV’s transdisciplinary Center for Advancing Human-Machine Partnerships. Shehu is lead PI on the George Mason-National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute Consortium (AISIC) cooperative research and development agreement within the Department of Commerce in response to the 2023 White House Executive Order on AI. As part of the Office of Research, Innovation, and Economic Impact division’s leadership team, Shehu will continue to provide leadership for IDIA. A full biography is available here.

Shehu’s position comes at a time of rapid AI advancements at the university. In April 2024, George Mason launched the Mason Autonomy and Robotics Center (MARC), which will serve as the focal point for research in autonomy, robotics, and AI. In fall 2024, the university will launch a graduate certificate that focuses on responsible AI. Earlier this summer, George Mason was awarded a $1 million grant to establish the nation’s first Center for AI Innovation for Economic Competitiveness, which will bolster the economic competitiveness of small and medium enterprises across Virginia. Much of the work in AI will take place at the Fuse at Mason Square, the university’s new state-of-the-art research and entrepreneurship hub for students, digital innovators, researchers, and regional businesses opening this fall.

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College of Public Health receives NIH grant to pilot AI chatbot for African Americans with depression

Mary Cunningham — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 17:03:05 +0000

College of Public Health receives NIH grant to pilot AI chatbot for African Americans with depression Mary Cunningham Mon, 06/10/2024 - 13:03

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Farrokh Alemi, PhD

Janusz Wojtusiak, PhD

Kevin Lybarger

As a leader in innovative health solutions, ��AV’s College of Public Health received a National Institutes of Health (NIH) AIM-AHEAD program grant to pilot an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot for Black and African Americans with depression. Professor Farrokh Alemi will enhance his first-of-its-kind, evidence-based artificial intelligence tool to address the medication needs of African Americans with depression.

Professor of Health Informatics Farrokh Alemi

The existing AI tool recommends antidepressants for 16,775 general-population patient subgroups, each representing a unique combination of medical history. For each of these subgroups, the current project will analyze the effectiveness and appropriateness of the recommendations for African Americans, using the NIH All of Us database and existing published literature.

To the researchers' knowledge, this is the first research focused on developing and evaluating an antidepressant recommendation system for Black and African American people.

“Antidepressant medications are a first-line treatment for depression; however, a majority of depressed patients do not experience improvement with their first antidepressant. Additionally, minority populations, including Black and African Americans, are not well represented in antidepressant studies, contributing to reduced antidepressant effectiveness in these populations,” said Alemi. “There is a significant need to synthesize available evidence regarding antidepressant effectiveness and provide personalized treatment recommendations, and this project addresses a major gap in the management of Black and African Americans with depression.”

Researchers will develop a Knowledge-enhanced Antidepressant Recommendation Dialogue System (KARDS), which will engage users in a back-and-forth conversation to acquire the patient information needed to identify the appropriate antidepressant medication. The AI will provide the patient with a list of recommended medications, list of the relevant studies, and an explanation for the medication decisions. The system will automatically send the patient’s clinician a brief point-of-care recommendation and explanation, with an option to examine a complete record of the conversation and the supporting evidence.

“Chatbots—or patient-facing dialogue systems like the one we will create—hold transformative potential for the health care sector and are increasingly prominent in psychiatric applications, predominantly through therapy-bot implementations,” said Alemi. “Our chatbot will help improve the detailed, time-consuming, medical history intake process, and provide point-of-care summary and prescription recommendations to the patients’ clinicians. The chatbot will make patients more comfortable because the natural language modality provides an intuitive, empathetic, stigma-free interface.”

Once the AI chatbot is developed, the team will test the dialogue system with Black and African American patients to evaluate system functionality and user preferences. Additionally, the project will train a Black or African American doctoral or master’s student in AI, expanding the available workforce and building the community’s capacity to address AI.

Alemi will lead the research team, which includes Janusz Wojtusiak, a George Mason professor of Health Informatics and the director of the Machine Learning and Inference Laboratory, and Kevin Lybarger, a George Mason assistant professor in the Department of Information Sciences and Technology in the College of Engineering and Computing. All three members have collaborated previously to diagnose COVID at home from presenting symptoms.

The $70,906 grant is part of the NIH’s AIM-AHEAD (Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Consortium to Advance Health Equity and Researcher Diversity) program, which aims “to establish mutually beneficial and coordinated partnerships to increase the participation and representation of researchers and communities currently underrepresented in the development of AI/machine learning models and enhance the capabilities of this emerging technology, beginning with electronic health record data.”

Innovate for Good is an ongoing series that examines how George Mason faculty in the College of Public Health are harnessing technology to improve health outcomes.

If you have stories to share as part of the Innovate for Good series, email Mary Cunningham at mcunni7@gmu.edu.

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George Mason researchers harness the power of artificial intelligence to match patients with the most effective antidepressant for their unique needs

Mary Cunningham — Wed, 29 May 2024 19:46:58 +0000

George Mason researchers harness the power of artificial intelligence to match patients with the most effective antidepressant for their unique needs Mary Cunningham Wed, 05/29/2024 - 15:46

Researchers in ��AV’s College of Public Health have leveraged the power of artificial intelligence (AI) analytical models to match a patient’s medical history to the most effective antidepressant, allowing patients to find symptom relief sooner. The free website, MeAgainMeds.com, provides evidence-based recommendations, allowing clinicians and patients to find the optimal antidepressant the first time.

Farrokh Alemi, principal investigator and professor of health informatics at ��AV’s College of Public Health

“Many people with depression must try multiple antidepressants before finding the right one that alleviates their symptoms. Our website reduces the number of medications that patients are asked to try. The system recommends to the patient what has worked for at least 100 other patients with the same exact relevant medical history,” said Farrokh Alemi, principal investigator and professor of health informatics at ��AV’s College of Public Health.

AI helped to simplify the very complex task of making the thousands of guidelines easily accessible to patients and clinicians. The guidelines that researchers created are complicated because of the amount of clinical information that is relevant in prescribing an antidepressant; AI seamlessly simplifies the task.

With AI at its core, MeAgainMeds.com analyzes clinician or patient responses to a few anonymous medical history questions to determine which oral antidepressant would best meet the specific needs. The website does not ask for any personal identifiable information and it does not prescribe medication changes. Patients are advised to visit their primary health care provider for any changes in medication.

In 2018, the Centers for Disease Control reported that more than 13% of adults use antidepressants, and the number has only increased since the pandemic and other epidemics since 2020. This website could help millions of people find relief more quickly.

Alemi and his team analyzed 3,678,082 patients who took 10,221,145 antidepressants. The oral antidepressants analyzed were amitriptyline, bupropion, citalopram, desvenlafaxine, doxepin, duloxetine, escitalopram, fluoxetine, mirtazapine, nortriptyline, paroxetine, sertraline, trazodone, and venlafaxine. From the data, they created 16,770 subgroups of at least 100 cases, using reactions to prior antidepressants, current medication, history of physical illness, history of mental illness, key procedures, and other information. The subgroups and remission rates drive the AI to produce an evidence-based medication recommendation.

“By matching patients to the subgroups, clinicians can prescribe the medication that works best for people with similar medical history,” said Alemi. The researchers and website recommend that patients who use the site take the information to their clinicians, who will ultimately decide whether to prescribe the recommended medicine.

Alemi and his team tested a protype version of the site in 2023, which they advertised on social media. At that time, 1,500 patients used the website. Their goal is to improve the website and expand its user base. The initial research was funded by the Commonwealth of Virginia and by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The researchers’ most recent paper in a series of papers on response to antidepressants analyzed 2,467 subgroups of patients who had received psychotherapy. “Effectiveness of Antidepressants in Combination with Psychotherapy” was published online in March 2024. Additional authors include Tulay G Soylu from Temple University, and Mary Cannon and Conor McCandless from Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, Ireland.

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Farrokh Alemi, PhD

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Professor applies statistics and AI to land use modeling and real estate pricing

Teresa Donnellan — Wed, 29 May 2024 16:18:12 +0000

Professor applies statistics and AI to land use modeling and real estate pricing Teresa Donnellan Wed, 05/29/2024 - 12:18

In This Story

Abolfazl Safikhani

��AV statistics professor Abolfazl Safikhani recently applied his cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research to analyzing land use dynamics and property pricing shifts over time, work that underscores the transformative potential of data-driven insights, especially in urban planning and real estate.

Safikhani earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics before earning a doctorate in statistics.

“I decided to do a PhD in statistics because throughout the master’s I had become more and more interested in connecting real world problems to data. And I'm very happy that I made that decision,” he said.

Abolfazl Safikhani

Along with a former colleague at the University of Florida in the urban planning department, Safikhani applied machine learning techniques to a dataset comprising millions of land parcels in Florida. The two endeavored to decipher the intricate dynamics of land use transformations over time and predict future developments with unprecedented accuracy. Their predictions surpassed 98% accuracy.

But the team didn't stop with successful predictions. They recognized the importance of understanding the underlying mechanisms driving these predictions. With the addition of a new collaborator, Tianshu Feng in George Mason’s Systems Engineering and Operations Research Department, the researchers aim to present their land use analysis software as explainable artificial intelligence (XAI). By elucidating the black box of machine learning algorithms, Safikhani hopes local government decision-makers and urban planners can confidently leverage the software to optimize resource allocation effectively.

Another of Safikhani’s projects considers land use and value specifically concerning the price of residential real estate. Safikhani’s own experience buying real estate in Fairfax County, Virginia, in 2022, inspired this project. When he asked his real estate agent to estimate a fair price of a certain house, the agent came back with an estimate based on the price of three comparable local properties that had recently sold. Ever a “quant guy,” Safikhani said, he thought there could be a better way: applying the idea of transfer learning.

“The big idea of transfer learning is, within your big data set, try to find areas that have similar dynamics to your area of interest. And then use that similarity to improve your prediction,” Safikhani explained. “So, imagine that there is a little neighborhood somewhere in DC or somewhere in Maryland or somewhere in California that has dynamics very similar to the specific neighborhood where you want to buy a house in Northern Virginia. Once you account for some changes, let's say, regulations and things that are different, then the remaining dynamics are their similarities.”

He continued, “If you only use your neighborhood, you can have three data points. If you use another, similar neighborhood, it's going to be 20. If you use neighborhoods from other places over the 50 states of the U.S., you may end up getting a thousand data points.”

Safikhani is working with a colleague from the University of California – Los Angeles to bring in funding to develop this pricing software. Their preliminary results show the benefit of their proposed model versus current pricing systems.

Safikhani's research is poised to revolutionize sectors like urban planning and real estate. In fact, his research has attracted the attention of startups keen to translate his findings into real estate–disrupting tools.

“It seems there's actually a growing interest in having such AI tools that would understand land use development and then really match it with pricing,” he said. “And sooner or later, this [technology] is going to come out. Platforms like Zillow are doing a good job, but there's much more that can be done.”

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Big Data

big data analytics

real estate entrepreneurship

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Research

Mason's new MARC focuses on autonomy, robotics, and responsible AI

Nathan Kahl — Tue, 16 Apr 2024 14:30:37 +0000

Mason's new MARC focuses on autonomy, robotics, and responsible AI Nathan Kahl Tue, 04/16/2024 - 10:30

Industry executives, campus leaders, faculty, donors and alumni attended the official opening of ��AV’s College of Engineering and Computing’s Mason Autonomy and Robotics Center (MARC), but the star of the show was a Boston Dynamics quadruped. As the bright yellow doglike robot held one end of the green ribbon, ��AV President Gregory Washington, MARC co-directors Professors Missy Cummings and Jesse Kirkpatrick cut. Afterward, the quadruped roamed the event, opening doors for attendees and demonstrating its capabilities.

The event showcased Mason’s strength in important, emerging fields. In his welcoming remarks, Dean Ken Ball said, “MARC is the focal point for our research in autonomy, robotics, and AI. Mason truly is a pace-setter in these areas.”

Attendees explored the new facility in Mason’s Research Hall on the Fairfax Campus. The space includes a 1,649-square-foot, two-story aviary for testing drones, areas for lab experiments, faculty offices, collaboration and study areas, and a student lounge.

Mason President Gregory Washington and MARC co-directors Missy Cummings and Jesse Kirkpatrick are aided by a Boston Dynamics "dog" in cutting the ribbon to open the center officially. Photo by John Boal Photography.

During her remarks, Cummings addressed the evolving role of robots in society. “People don’t want autonomy to do their creative jobs,” she said. “They want to do their art, they want to write their stories…what they want is the robot maid. Once we hit world peak population in 55 years, we won’t have enough people to do the jobs we need. The dull, dirty, dangerous jobs are a great place for robots.”

Both Ball and Washington noted that in addition to being a leader in artificial intelligence (AI), the university is focusing on responsible AI, with a graduate certificate in that field launching in fall 2024.

“We’ve been at the forefront of a whole host of outcomes and technologies that have benefited this state and this region," said Washington. "Right here in engineering, we established the first-in-the-country cybersecurity engineering program, so there’s a real lineage of innovation here. Mason will be the only Virginia university to join more than 200 of the nation’s leading AI stakeholders to participate in the Department of Commerce’s initiative to support the development of trustworthy and safe AI.”

“We do autonomy, we robotics, we do AI…but we do it responsibly and that’s in our core,” said Kirkpatrick. “It’s in our principles, policies, practice, and people. It’s across the research enterprise, and it’s in our teaching. The leaders of today, tomorrow, and the day after have to get this right because it’s so absolutely critical.”

Students demonstrate their claw game-like device, named Skygripper, to be used in the upcoming Defend the Republic competition. Photo by John Boal Photography.

Attendees explored the facility and talked to students about projects. Filling the MARC aviary for the event were student-designed “blimps.” These lighter-than-air creations will soon compete in Defend the Republic, an annual event in EagleBank Arena where the autonomous flying devices compete in a Harry Potter quidditch-like game to move a ball into a target hanging from the ceiling.

"Not just for engineering, MARC will be used by numerous colleges and departments across the university for many multidisciplinary projects. This is a collaborative space for our students to work,” said Ball. “And it’s really important they have the opportunity to work in close proximity to our faculty.”

MARC’s opening is another demonstration of Mason’s strength in STEM, which attracts numerous corporate partners. Venkat Potapragada of 22nd Century Technologies attended the event and said, “I’m here because this is a strategic relationship for us and a key component of our overall growth strategy. We depend on talent, and Mason will help us achieve our growth goals. In the D.C. region, Mason is a name to be reckoned with.”

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New certificate program in responsible AI starting fall 2024

Martha Bushong — Fri, 01 Mar 2024 15:52:55 +0000

New certificate program in responsible AI starting fall 2024 Martha Bushong Fri, 03/01/2024 - 10:52

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Under the guidance of Missy Cummings, a professor and the director of the Mason Autonomy and Robotics Center (MARC) at ��AV, the Responsible Artificial Intelligence Graduate Certificate program addresses the pressing need for thoughtful AI integration into various industries.

Missy Cummings

“With the rise of large language models like ChatGPT, there is a critical need for companies to develop strategies for effectively and safely integrating AI into their systems. The Mason approach to Responsible AI emphasizes both rigorous technical and sociotechnical approaches to identifying and mitigating AI risks while achieving value-added outcomes,” said Cummings.

Ideal candidates for this certificate program are “people responsible for ensuring the safe and efficacious adoption of AI into their companies or agencies who want to develop and update their skills to understand the design, testing, and implementation of cutting-edge technology,” she added.

Cummings especially looks forward to teaching the AI Design and Deployment Risks class, she said, “because we analyze current and pressing issues surrounding the risks of deploying AI. The combination of theory and practice is critical to understanding these issues, as well as developing the technology and policy mitigations needed to ensure safe and efficacious AI.”

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Associated Press: Missy Cummings (CEC) quoted in story about Pentagon AI initiatives

Kristin Heydt — Mon, 27 Nov 2023 18:45:05 +0000

Associated Press: Missy Cummings (CEC) quoted in story about Pentagon AI initiatives Kristin Heydt Mon, 11/27/2023 - 13:45

Read "Pentagon’s AI initiatives accelerate hard decisions on lethal autonomous weapons" from the Associated Press

From the article by Frank Bajak

“The AI that we’ve got in the Department of Defense right now is heavily leveraged and augments people,” said Missy Cummings, director of ��AV’s robotics center and a former Navy fighter pilot.” “There’s no AI running around on its own. People are using it to try to understand the fog of war better.”

Also in The Washington Post, ABC News, the Las Vegas Sun, NBC 10 Philadelphia, WHEC-TV10 (the local NBC affiliate in Rochester, NY) and other media outlets.

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New Name, More Meaningful Mission: Schar School Unveils ‘Intelligent Automation Initiative’

Andrew J Schappert — Thu, 29 Jun 2023 16:59:54 +0000

New Name, More Meaningful Mission: Schar School Unveils ‘Intelligent Automation Initiative’ Andrew J Schappert Thu, 06/29/2023 - 12:59

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David K. Rehr: ‘The technology continues to quickly evolve around us…”

The groundbreaking Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Initiative at the Schar School of Policy and Government at ��AV has changed its name to the Intelligent Automation (IA) Initiative. The new name better reflects its mission as the world’s technological ecosystem, particularly all things AI, continues to evolve.

The Schar School’s Center for Business Civic Engagement unveiled RPA in early 2021 in partnership with UiPath, a leading enterprise RPA software company, to develop technology that enables users—particularly governments and universities—to configure computer software to emulate and integrate the actions of a human interacting within digital systems to execute and automate business processes.

The IA Initiative builds on that early work by incorporating “other digital technologies beyond the robotic process automation, and including in its overall mission the advancement of successful automation practices and the tools already in practice,” said Schar School Professor David K. Rehr, co-founder of the RPA Initiative. “The technology continues to quickly evolve around us, and our original name no longer represents our contributions in their entirety.”

Dorin Munteanu: AI ‘is becoming the foundation for business operations, economic competitiveness, and national security…’

The newly branded IA Initiative will continue its partnership with Virginia colleges and universities to improve effectiveness and efficiency through the adoption of software automation. That program is now called the Virginia Academic Intelligent Automation Community of Practice, or VA Academic IA CoP.

“The use of intelligent automation at scale is becoming the foundation for business operations, economic competitiveness, and national security,” said Dorin Munteanu, co-founder of the RPA Initiative. “We want to make sure our work value aligns with the public sector and, particularly, academia stakeholders’ needs.”

The vision and mission, added Rehr, “remain the same—to become the nation’s prominent academic initiative for the study of intelligent automation’s complexities and its ramifications on society.”

“We are making terrific progress through the initiative, but there is much left to do to ensure our nation gets the full positive benefits of intelligent automation in the digital age,” Munteanu said.

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AI's future discussed at roundtable

Rena Malai — Tue, 13 Jun 2023 19:36:06 +0000

AI's future discussed at roundtable Rena Malai Tue, 06/13/2023 - 15:36

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Missy Cummings

Just what is AI? 

This was one of the first questions posed by Missy Cummings, director of ��AV’s Autonomy and Robotics Center, at the Future of AI roundtable in June. 

“At the end of the day, AI can be a tool to help you in your job, but you need to understand both its strengths and weaknesses,” Cummings said. “That’s why Mason will be offering a certificate and master’s degree focused on responsible AI, so that people across industry and government can learn how to manage the risks while promoting the benefits of AI.”

The invite-only roundtable, hosted by the College of Engineering and Computing, explored the issues, challenges, and solutions to think about as AI technologies rapidly evolve and change almost as soon as they are introduced. 

Missy Cummings leads the Future of AI roundtable at Mason Square.

Cummings led the roundtable and highlighted AI areas like ChatGPT and autonomous driving systems that lack human reasoning skills. When human behavior, environment, and AI blind spots intersect, the resulting uncertainty contributes to fundamental limitations. 

“As humans, we do a great job of successfully filling in the blanks when there is imperfect information,” said Cummings. “If I quickly flash a picture of a stop sign, your brain automatically recognizes what it is, even if it’s not a clear image. But it’s arguable whether the vision system on a self -driving car can do the same.” 

She added that automation can fall apart at a critical threshold, such as when a car is supposed to stop at a stop sign that’s visible to the human eye, but maybe overlooked by an AI vision system. 

“As humans, we have much more experience driving cars,” she said. “Self-driving cars are still a new technology and while simulation testing can help identify problems, real-world testing for such non-deterministic systems that never reason the same way twice is critical.”

One of her favorite uses of ChatGPT is for her students to use it for grammar and spell checking when they write papers, but that’s the extent.  

“ChatGPT cannot reason under uncertainty. It does not think. It does not know. It can approximate human knowledge, but there is no actual thinking or knowledge,” said Cummings. “ChatGPT goes after the most probable image, or the most probable grouping of words.” 

In general, large language models like ChatGPT will use what the average person is saying on the internet. This means it could pick up extremist views, if it is currently something trending or popular online.    

It can also be a concern when it comes to diversity, she said. 

“If a company uses ChatGPT to write their mission statement, in another five years, everyone’s mission statement will be the same,” Cummings said. “Creative thoughts and authenticity are lost. It’s important to understand how far we push these models, and what the long-term ramifications could be.”

Roundtable attendees from local universities and tech companies left with a greater understanding of how AI can impact everyday life, in more ways than one.

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Solon Simmons looks for win-win opportunities in his role as Faculty Senate president

What do you consider some of the Faculty Senate’s major achievements in recent years, and what issues do you envision being focal points for the senate in 2024-25?

How do think your expertise in peace and conflict resolution will serve you both within the Faculty Senate and as the faculty representative on the Board of Visitors?

How significant of an issue is AI for Mason faculty? What sort of discussion is the Faculty Senate having about the implications of AI?

Since the pandemic, Faculty Senate meetings have taken place entirely on Zoom. Will that continue? Do you find that meeting virtually leads to greater engagement from senators and from faculty around the university?

You’re coming up on two decades at the university. What are the major differences between the George Mason you came to in 2006 and the George Mason of today?

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����AV’s Amarda Shehu appointed inaugural Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer

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College of Public Health receives NIH grant to pilot AI chatbot for African Americans with depression

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George Mason researchers harness the power of artificial intelligence to match patients with the most effective antidepressant for their unique needs

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Professor applies statistics and AI to land use modeling and real estate pricing

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Mason's new MARC focuses on autonomy, robotics, and responsible AI

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New certificate program in responsible AI starting fall 2024

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Associated Press: Missy Cummings (CEC) quoted in story about Pentagon AI initiatives

Read "Pentagon’s AI initiatives accelerate hard decisions on lethal autonomous weapons" from the Associated Press

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New Name, More Meaningful Mission: Schar School Unveils ‘Intelligent Automation Initiative’

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AI's future discussed at roundtable

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��AV’s Amarda Shehu appointed inaugural Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer