GRAND ISLAND, N.Y. (WKBW) — The University at Buffalo's Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science hosted a discussion at Grand Island High School to explain how AI would benefit students with learning disabilities.
"So the goal of this demo is to automatically generate flashcards that speech pathologists can use to help children who are having speech difficulties," said Alexander Stone, University at Buffalo PhD student.
Another UB computer science student explained how this technology would positively impact students.
"This is not like we are applying computer science to the domain," said Bhuvin Jawade. "We are collaborating with the domain experts, taking their expertise, and helping them use AI in this domain so there’s nothing to worry about.
This AI world is opening a new set of concerns for some people.
"Well, we barely have resources for those who are disabled now, so how would AI change that?" said a concerned resident. "I don’t think as a culture society even cares about people with those disabilities regardless, so why don’t we fix the systems that are already broken rather than integrating and adding something new."
A 6th-grade teacher from Veronica E. Connor Middle School shared that using AI can help parents at home.
"Well, you now have an educator in your back pocket to a certain extent," said Mary Howard. “So you have extra support at home. I think that’s a good way to look at it."
Some fear AI may take control of our world.
"So AI is actually not that new. The term AI itself has been going on for at least 60-70 years back," said Venu Govindaraju, Vice President of Research and Economic Development at UB. "It’ll become like a tool like a calculator, right? It helps us do the calculations, but the decision-making is still with the human being so there will be many jobs which will be more efficient."
