I want to begin this dean’s note by expressing my concern for everyone who has been affected by the severe weather across the nation this past week. Here in Nashville, we were hit very hard and many in our Vanderbilt family—including me—are still without power, heat, or water. For all those who were affected, I hope that you have found safety and warmth, and that you are caring for one another and finding support in your communities.
Artificial intelligence has been dominating public discourse in recent years. There have been wide-ranging, and often heated, debates over its benefits and costs, its impact on society and the world, whether it should be regulated, and how it is changing our present and will change the future. We grapple with these same issues here in the College of Arts and Science. As you will see in the articles below, our faculty members use AI to advance their research and innovate in their teaching. At the same time, they are critically exploring the ways AI impacts the way we think, create, make decisions, consume information, and connect with our fellow humans. While definitive answers to these questions are impossible, in the video below, two A&S faculty members provide their expert insights on some of these pressing questions and how we might address them. As with most of the critical issues facing our world, our faculty remain at the forefront of these conversations.
And for those who are wondering, I certify that this dean’s note was not written with AI.
