A lot has been made lately in the media about Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT, Bard, and DALL-E. But what does the general public really understand about all the various applications of AI that are currently in use, and in fact, have been for quite some time? Much of this development is taking place right here at our IU Indianapolis campus.
According to a survey of over 11K adults conducted by the Pew Research Center, only 30 percent recognized examples of such embedded AI applications currently in their hands: music playlist recommenders, wearable fitness trackers, web-based chatbots, and email spam detectors, to name a few. And 44 percent didn’t even realize they had interacted with AI at all.
Well designed and managed AI has the potential to enhance and expand human productivity, freeing us from mundane tasks and allowing us to focus on more creative endeavors, benefitting society in myriad ways. Faculty researchers at Luddy Indianapolis are hard at work already, studying AI and developing AI-based tools that do just that.
Our faculty research is AI-driven
Fawzi BenMessaoud, Lecturer in Informatics, recently presented to the World AI Celebration in Cannes, France on the use of AI tools in education. He has developed one such tool—an AI assistant for his courses—and received a SEIRI grant to continue the development. BenMessaoud teaches AI courses and certificate programs at the school.
Karl MacDorman, Associate Professor of Human-Computer Interaction, is an internationally recognized expert in human-robot interaction and virtual AI assistants, specifically a psychological phenomenon known as the uncanny valley. MacDorman’s work has been published or cited in multiple scientific journals and mainstream publications, including Wired and WSJ, and has been referenced in media broadcasts, such as MSNBC.
Aqueasha Martin Hammond, Assistant Professor of Human-Computer Interaction, is focused on elder care, in particular the use of technology by and for that demographic. She is exploring the use of AI-based digital assistants to monitor health and wellness in that population.
Assistant Professor of Data Science Sunandan Chakraborty’s research employs AI in locating illegal wildlife trafficking sites on the dark web. He has received an NSF grant to support this important work.
Associate Professor of Data Science and Health Informatics Saptarshi Purkayastha’s lab is examining AI enhancement of a radiographer’s ability to read and assess images. His research discussing the pros and cons of the topic was published in a leading scientific journal.
Assistant Professor of Data Science Ming Jiang’s research broadly focuses on trustworthy natural language processing (NLP) and artificial intelligence (AI) to prevent the spread of misinformation in digital knowledge acquisition and management. She is particularly interested in developing algorithms and resources to understand how humans and AI systems perceive information from digital objects such as texts and images.
Our students can earn an AI degree
Students at Luddy Indianapolis will lead the next generation of AI designers and developers. Our Bachelor of Arts degree in Artificial Intelligence focuses on the human interaction aspects of AI, from bot platforms to natural language processing. Courses in the curriculum teach students everything from how to build the AI applications to the ethics of their use and allow them to earn industry certifications and prepare for careers in AI.
Media Contact
Joanne Lovrinic
jebehele@iu.edu
317-278-9208