LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — The enthusiasm coming from Dr. Brent Harrison was jumping through the screen.
“I am very excited,” he said, as we discussed a big development that recently happened on the University of Kentucky campus.
Last week, the school’s Board of Trustees approved the state’s first Artificial Intelligence major, which will offer a Bachelor of Science degree. Some hurdles remain, as approval is still needed from the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
“This is something our department chair, Zongming Fei, was in favor of,” Harrison explained. “He said, 'We have to do this; we see the desire from our students; we see the way the job market is going.'"
Artificial Intelligence is the future, according to those who’ve grasped the technology and believe in its impact and benefits. Dr. Harrison, who said the curriculum is already in place for a potential launch in the fall of 2026, says it’ll cover all aspects of the concentration.
“Pretty much anything we're doing with AI is having that ethics component. Dr. Judy Goldsmith, one of my colleagues here, was very adamant that no matter what we're doing, the students have to be aware of the potential pitfalls and other issues that come up when using AI,” Dr. Harrison said.
Currently, the university offers a certificate in AI training, which is useful for those who might only need some components, but by offering it as a major course of study, Dr. Harrison believes doors will be opened to its graduates like never before. It’s Computer Science on steroids, for lack of a better term.
“This is the kind of degree you could go out and be a software developer, but you would be more practiced in using these AI tools to make yourself more efficient. You could also go into things like data analytics. And, I’ll go ahead and say it, you could go into game design, game development,” Dr. Harrison said.
He also noted that the interest is much higher than he initially thought it would be. No one has (or can) declare AI as their major right now, but he anticipates many will. And he’s expecting some students to either switch majors or add AI to complete a double major program of study.
“I think the interest is there, and I think we’re going to see that, but I do expect the enrollment to pick up over 2 or 3 years,” he predicted, again pending the approval of the state’s CPE and SACS.
