Today marked the official opening of a new $150 million building dedicated to data science and information technology which the university hopes to “transform” the AI and data science workforce. The new facility is named after Chris Malachowsky, co-founder of NVIDIA—one of the largest computing companies in the world. 

At an event in conjunction with the building’s ribbon-cutting, NVIDIA’s CEO, Jensen Huang, explained that the world is entering a new computing era because for the first time, computers are the ones writing software that run computers, and it is paramount that students are prepared to understand it.

“We’ve closed the technology divide, if you will. Everybody’s a programmer; everybody’s a computer scientist. Everybody can use this computer for their benefit,” Huang said.

Newly inaugurated president of UF, Ben Sasse, was also part of the panel. He said that the digital revolution, and especially AI, is going to reshape—and redefine—the future of higher education.

“Software is going to eat the world,” Sasse said. “And more than software, you’re going to end up in an environment where verticals just disappear because we figured out how to automate repetitive functions in ways that humans have never before assumed you wouldn’t be able to do one kind of job until the end of time.”

New era of technology

The ability for AI to understand information—and the meaning behind words and language—has been a major breakthrough, Huang said.

“The reason why AI has been so hard to adopt is because it’s been so hard to use. It’s too brittle,” Huang said. “And that’s the breakthrough of the last five years.”

He said ChatGPT is an example of how AI has become more user-friendly. And while at the same time, AI on a larger scale does have the potential for adversity, he encouraged people to not become overly distracted about the possible harms to the point that solutions are not created. 

The best social, scientific, and regulatory best practices must be considered and implemented to make sure AI will safely be able to be as ubiquitous in society as say electricity, he said.

Huang has led NVIDIA to become one of the most valuable companies in the world. In 2020, the company donated $25 million to the creation of UF’s HiPerGator, one of the most powerful AI supercomputers in the country.

Rethinking higher education

Sasse made headlines last year when he unexpectedly announced his mid-term resignation from representing Nebraska in the U.S. senate to become the next leader of the University of Florida. He took office as president in January, but his official inauguration took place yesterday.

Because of the fast rate of technological growth, learning is going to need to transform, he said—adding that it may not be necessary for one to start out with eight straight semesters of higher education, rather people will need higher education many more times in life.

“Lifelong work in any one, not just firm, but any one industry is going to end in our lives, right? You’re ultimately going to have to figure out how to reinvent yourselves at 30, 35, 40, and 45,” he said.

Similarly, the way and speed in which professors are hired also needs to change in light of the digital revolution and the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of academics, Sasse said.

“We no longer want to recruit in just department-by-department basis,” he said.

He said he hopes the academic hiring cycle can move from being a 12-month process to just being a few weeks. In his inauguration speech Thursday, he said UF will defend the idea of tenure for fields where longer-term employment deals make the most sense.

UF recently hired over 110 new faculty members in the realm of AI, adding to over 300 who are already focused on AI teaching and research. The school also has created additional AI-focused courses.

While UF does not have any AI-specific degrees, it offers an undergraduate certificate in AI as well as deep dives within its programs such as in information systems and information management.

In part thanks to NVIDIA’s investment, UF says it will be the “first and only university in the country to offer every student the opportunity to learn about AI and how it applies in their fields.”