MSUM Professor Talks About How AI is Changing the Workforce

MOORHEAD, Minn. (KVRR) — Distinguishing between what’s real and what’s AI-generated has been one of the top searches in the past few years. And in recent years, it has begun to receive more criticism.

“A lot of companies feel like they can’t wait to see, oh, how is it catching on. They just feel like they got to get in on it now because by the time they wait for stuff like that to come out, it’ll be too late and they’ll be too far behind and they won’t really know how to catch up,” said Andrew Chen, Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems.

At Minnesota State University Moorhead, the university announced they will be applying an Institute of Applied AI, which prepares graduates to utilize AI in fields such as business, healthcare, education, arts, and sciences.

Andrew Chen is one of five faculty members selected to be a fellow for the program to help students and faculty within his department prepare for the workforce.

“Students graduate and they are not familiar on how to use AI, it’s a problem. And so that’s a lot of what is important in terms of this focus on making sure that we are aiming to be in lead when it comes to the application of AI,” said Chen.

Chen says that things have changed over the years since teaching and preparing students to find their career. Since 2020, students have been struggling to find a job after they finish school. But he believes being a fellow will help students to be more prepared for the changing landscape.

“If we take as long to talk about AI as we did about the calculator, we will never be able to finish the conversation because AI will continue to change faster than we are able to come up with an answer,” said Chen.

The university will be applying its ‘Institute of Applied Artificial Intelligence’ beginning this fall.