Prashant Doshi, long-time University of Georgia computer science professor and distinguished researcher with more than two decades of experience in the field of artificial intelligence, just celebrated 20 years at UGA. On top of that, he was named the inaugural executive director of UGA’s Institute for Artificial Intelligence.

The previous director role was elevated to an executive director role, reflecting the elevation of AI on UGA’s campus. Doshi was selected for the role following a nationwide search.

“I think the idea was that this new executive director role should reflect the importance that UGA is placing on AI research and education on campus,” Doshi said.

History of UGA’s AI institute

What is now UGA’s Institute for Artificial Intelligence began as a research program in 1984 and is one of the oldest formal AI research groups in the country that offers a degree program. UGA’s masters degree in AI was approved three years later, in 1987.

“At the time the masters degree was created, there were very few AI oriented degrees at all,” Frederick Maier, full-time faculty member and associate director for academic programs at the AI institute, said. “It’s really only over the last 10-15 years that AI degrees have proliferated across the country.”

The research program then became a center for AI in 1995 before officially becoming an institute in 2008, which is an important distinction, according to Maier. Institutes can offer degree programs while centers cannot. As associate director for academic programs, Maier oversees the many degrees that the AI institute offers including the bachelor’s of cognitive science, the master’s of AI, PhD of AI, minor in cognitive science and certificate in AI.

Today, the role of the institute is to advance the science of AI on campus, serve as a resource of AI expertise and educate students and faculty in AI.

“[The institute] has really evolved over the years,” Doshi said. “I think it has evolved with the sort of growing importance on AI, just in general, and also AI on campus.”

The institute’s research

The world really began to understand the importance of AI three or four years ago when AI models surfaced, according to Doshi. With this realization came increased AI research funding and staffing at UGA. The university’s provost at the time launched an initiative to hire AI faculty across campus, initially around 70 staff members. Along with that, there were many internal seed grant opportunities to advance AI research on campus.

“We grew from having about 35 to 40 faculty fellows to, at this point in time, having more than 90 plus faculty fellows affiliated with the institute,” Doshi said.

In the last five years, the AI research enterprise at UGA has grown significantly with much more funding flowing through the institute for not only AI projects, but for expanding into different disciplines across campus as well.

Historically, the institute has engaged in core AI research — logics, search, knowledge based systems, agents, multi agents and so on — but in the last few years, research has expanded to include AI in other disciplines. Now, UGA has faculty fellows doing AI research in business, psychology, philosophy, linguistics, marine sciences and more. The institute currently has fellows in 12 of UGA’s 17 colleges.

“For decades, AI research and AI education, it’s really been a relatively niche field. Only relatively recently has AI exploded into all sorts of different disciplines,” Maier said. “What has stayed the same is that there is this profound need for educated people. People who understand how AI systems work and how they can be used and what the strengths and weaknesses are.”

Doshi’s goals: building community

As the first executive director of the institute, Doshi’s primary goal is to build an AI community at UGA. To do this, the institute will be organizing different activities in the upcoming year to bring together faculty fellows and their students.

“One of our biggest goals is to build this AI community on campus and … make sure that [students] don’t feel alone,” Doshi said. “Because sometimes an AI researcher will be the only one in their unit but we want them to realize that there is a community here.”

Other advancements in the institute include Generative AI & Teaching Faculty Fellows, which is a year-long program that selects 15 faculty fellows to explore, share, develop, implement and assess innovative applications of generative AI for teaching and learning. The institute is also expecting to introduce more AI certificates and Double Dawgs pathways for students.

“It’s an evolving AI world, so the degree programs need to evolve with it,” Maier said.

More of Doshi’s initiatives include advancing the institute’s research, teaching and service missions, hosting more events to boost engagement and empowering the institute’s teams so that they can achieve their own goals.

“Finally, AI itself is a career path,” Doshi said. “I’ve been in AI for 20 years now and I’ve always waited for the point when AI itself would be a career path, and it is now. So I’m really excited about that.”

The role of AI, at UGA and beyond

“Now [AI] is everywhere,” Maier said. “So there are all sorts of implications of adoption which are only now coming to the forefront. There are social implications, ethical implications which people now have to wrestle with.”

Some students pursuing AI degrees at UGA want research jobs, others want practical skills that they can apply as AI is increasingly an interdisciplinary field. Even if not going directly into AI research, students can benefit from pursuing an AI degree — whether that be a major, minor or certificate — because AI is infiltrating its way into all sorts of disciplines.

“In order for [AI] to really be marketable, you have to be literate,” Maier said. “And the university understands that AI literacy is a very important topic at this point.”

Many software development companies — and really any type of company at this point — are trying to figure out their “AI strategies,” according to Doshi.

“They’re all aware at the general sense that we need to leverage AI, but how? So this is where our students are really perfectly positioned to help them out,” Doshi said. “One of the unique aspects of our degree program is not only do [students] get a very solid education in core AI, but also in courses around AI like linguistics, cognitive science, philosophy and so on.”

When people think about AI, Doshi said, they often associate it with the kind of AI technology seen in movies — often a negative, dystopian portrayal. Although there are limitations, just like with any new innovations, there are strengths as well.

“I personally am very optimistic about AI developments. I believe that AI is one of those unifying technologies across disciplines,” Doshi said. “I certainly don’t think that we have reached a point where AI is going to be all pervasive.”

Although there is “superhuman AI” in video games right now — for instance, it is nearly impossible for a human to beat AI in a game of online chess or StarCraft, according to Doshi — in daily life, AI’s main purpose is simply to aid society.

“These are disruptive technologies so we have to be responsible in their deployment,” Maier said. “But it is a very exciting time. These are very useful technologies so there is potential for great societal benefit … It’s really up to us to ensure that they’re used in a productive way.”

AI is still in the process of maturing, according to Doshi, so it should be used with caution. It is important to be aware of AI adoption, the pace of adoption and the ethics of adoption.

“We should not blindly trust [AI’s] results,” Doshi said. “I think it can serve to inform your decision making, not replace you as a decision maker.”

How to use AI responsibly is taught as part of the degree curriculum, according to Doshi. Some of the courses offered include ethics of AI, AI and society and AI for humans.

“We are trying to give a very holistic education about AI to our students and not just getting swept up in the hype,” Doshi said.

It is necessary to separate AI’s “hype” from its substance — although many prominent companies tend to get caught up in AI’s growing success, it is not yet at the point where it can surpass human intelligence, according to Doshi.

“Ultimately, I believe that AI is in the service of humanity,” Doshi said. “It is up to us to make sure that it benefits us, it elevates all of us.”