Artificial intelligence has worked its way into school assignments, hiring decisions and electric bills, and it has brought a lot of questions with it. On Tuesday, Oct. 20, a student group at Angelina College sat five people down and asked them out loud.
The AC Psychology Club hosted the panel. Guest panelists were Dr. Michael Simon, AC president; State Rep. Wesley Virdell of District 53; Zane Adams, CEO of ZJ Industries; Michael McCracken, Angelina County GOP chairman; and Dr. Andrea Barrett, AC assistant vice president of academic affairs. Tommy Cole, an AC student and the club’s president, moderated, and the audience asked questions too.
Data centers came up. Virdell pointed to the concerns about rising energy costs being passed down to consumers, and to the need for more stringent regulation. McCracken said there hasn’t been enough clarification about public concerns over water consumption and the increased demand for electricity. He said data center developers and local governments need agreements in place so communities are compensated if resource use runs past the original projections.
Another question got at the “human element” — the fear that artificial intelligence replaces people talking to people. Simon answered it with a conversation he’d had with a local employer, who assured him the human element will always be a necessary component, and that AI’s contribution is more efficiency in certain areas. Simon also talked about what community colleges are being asked to do now: prepare every student to use AI as a tool, in coursework and in a career.
Adams, an AC alumnus, looked at the jobs side of it. Data centers need construction workers, technicians and engineers to design and maintain them. And the technology isn’t always right, he said, so people stay in the loop to implement and supervise what it produces.
AC psychology instructor Benetha Jackson sponsors the Psychology Club. For more information about the club, contact her at bjackson@angelina.edu.
