Demand for tech workers with specialized skills is rising alongside surging interest in artificial intelligence (A.I.) and other new technologies. In fact, the number of job postings requesting A.I. skills is projected to increase 297% during the next two years, according to market research firm Emsi Burning Glass. As the need for workers with these specialized skills grows, so too does the need for a common body of knowledge.
That’s why so many universities are racing to address these knowledge gaps. Along with A.I.-focused courses and classes, some universities have launched full-fledged degree programs, such as the University of Texas at Austin’s new master’s program in A.I. Other schools, like the University of Southern California, are taking a more sweeping approach to computation and A.I.
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Earlier this month, USC launched the largest academic initiative in its history—-a $1 billion-plus plan called “Frontiers of Computing”—to integrate computing and A.I. throughout the university’s education and research. The new plan, announced by USC President Carol L. Folt, is a collaborative effort to “enhance digital literacy” for students enrolled in all disciplines across the 22 schools within the institution, according to a recent press release. In addition to new programs, courses, and experiential education, there will also be discussions about ethics and responsibility and generative A.I.
At USC, A.I. meets every discipline
USC began working on this collaborative, campus-wide effort to integrate computing education and research in 2019, though the university has needed such an initiative for at least a decade, Folt tells Fortune. The university wanted to launch a comprehensive platform, rather than taking a step-by-step approach, and was able to do so thanks to a $260 million gift from the Lord Foundation of California.
“Rather than just trying to put that gift out and do a little thing in every single place or build a big building, we said, ‘No, this is the moment. Let’s take our time. Let’s really do something that is really comprehensive and something that will embed it and take advantage of the full breadth of the professions and the conversations that need to be had,'” Folt tells Fortune.
The new campus-wide commitment will infuse computational learning into USC’s curriculum, with special emphasis on A.I., machine learning and data science, augmented and virtual reality, robotics, and the blockchain. And it’s all an effort to prepare students for the changing world. “What we are trying to do with that breadth of schools is insert, transform, and advance computational science so that students from every profession in every major are really prepared for the change in the world that’s coming,” Folt says.
The $1 billion initiative will feature several efforts to achieve its goal, and Folt says she borrows inspiration from the Academy Award-winning film, Everything, Everywhere All at Once—which she says encapsulates the initiative’s all-encompassing mission.
“But in this case, I would insert ‘ethical thinking’ everywhere. I would put these different things—ethics, inclusion, computational good—in everything everywhere, all at once,” Folt says. “I probably steal from that wonderful movie because I think it really captures both the extent and the fact that it’s coming so quickly to us that we need to sort it out.”
How the “Frontiers of Computing” will work
There are five key elements to the “Frontiers of Computing” that include a new school of advanced computing, recruiting 30 additional faculty members, bolstering USC’s economic impact on the broader tech industry, educational offerings, and fostering discussions about ethics.
Although a potentially large undertaking, Folt says USC’s plan for infusing computation and A.I. across the curriculum means finding shared sets of pedagogies and working well across disciplines.
“So when we talk about something like inserting into the curriculum classes on ethics, what that means is that you bring your professors together, and they talk about and they say, ‘What could we do?’ That is a shared set of pedagogies,” Folt tells Fortune. “We just have to dig back in and find a way to make it come to life with the individuality it needs but also the shared values that it needs to really push learning, service and discovery forward.”
Ethics at the forefront
More broadly, schools are trying to figure out how to infuse a humanity element in an increasingly digital and automated world. And that’s certainly happening at USC. In March, the university opened the Center for Generative A.I. and Society, which will “explore the intersection of ethics and the use and evolution of generative A.I.,” according to a press release.
The new initiative builds upon that, by generating a responsible and conscientious culture among the entire USC community and fostering an environment that will influence application, development, policy, and research.
“It has ethics at the core in every single area,” Folt says. “And it’s not just one course in ethics that everybody takes. It’s embedding ethics in all that’s done and also applied ethics so that every profession can look at the ethical conundrums.”
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