TIGC takes a first look at AI

The Georgia State Senate has established a new committee to study Artificial Intelligence, aka AI. The jokes, of course, pretty much write themselves. As a longtime follower of the Georgia General Assembly, I’d wager it won’t be long before AI begins studying the State Senate. Lord knows what it’ll find.

AI, as everyone knows, is the revolutionary new technology that is already permeating nearly every part of global life. It’s also scaring the jeepers out of a lot of folks. Will it take over jobs now being done by us humans? Will it bring about revolutionary changes in our society and our lives?  Will we have to bring in Arnold Schwarzenegger to keep it from completely taking over and wiping out mankind? (My answers are yes, yes, and maybe.)

Here at Trouble in God’s Country LLC (my lawyer makes me add the LLC), I’m naturally curious about how AI might impact life in rural Georgia. I’m actually sort of vaguely optimistic. Lord knows, it can’t make things much worse for most rural parts of the state.

My vague optimism is rooted in the well-established fact that we humans do a really lousy job of predicting how new technologies will impact things. Thomas Watson, the legendary CEO at IBM nearly a century ago, has been widely quoted as saying he thought there might be a worldwide market for about five computers. We’ve got that many in our house.

I worked at BellSouth Corporation (now part of AT&T) when cell phones came along in the 1980s. My recollection is that BellSouth and the rest of the industry thought the market for cell phones would probably be limited. Only executives and professionals would be able to afford them.  Wrong on that one too.

The Senate AI study committee is made up of six members, five of whom represent Metro Atlanta districts. Only one, the Honorable Max Burns, Republican of Sylvania, hails from rural Georgia. I thought it would be interesting to get his thoughts on how AI might impact life in rural Georgia and contacted the Senate press office to see if they could set up a quick interview. Sadly, Senator Burns was too busy to talk with me.

So, spurned by Senator Burns and facing a hard deadline, I flailed around for a bit trying to figure out how to flesh out this week’s column when the solution hit me. I would interview an AI app.

I went to the ChatGPT website and asked a simple question: How might AI impact the lives of rural Georgians?

Within seconds, I had an impressive 532-word response that covered agriculture, healthcare, education, economic development, infrastructure and services, and environmental conservation, plus a short list of potential problems.  

Among other developments, ChatGPT assured me that AI would be able to:

• “help farmers optimize crop yields by providing real-time data on soil conditions, weather patterns and crop health,”
• “enhance telemedicine services, making healthcare more accessible to rural residents by facilitating remote consultations, diagnostics, and monitoring,” and
• “provide personalized learning experiences for students, adapting to their individual needs and learning styles.”

ChatGPT did acknowledge that AI “may” automate some jobs, but it insisted “it can also create new opportunities in tech and service sectors, such as AI maintenance and support roles.”  

My initial, cynical reaction to the last part of that sentence was: Great, future generations of rural Georgians will be reduced to working for AI. But the truth is, it was ever thus. The advent and evolution of computing gave rise to the field of information technology, which is now one of the largest and fastest-growing employment sectors in the nation.  

AI will almost certainly hit that field like rocket fuel, and therein lies a challenge and an opportunity that I hope the Senate study committee will focus on. In its hearing last week, the committee heard from representatives of Georgia Tech, the University of Georgia, and Georgia College and State University.  

That testimony was no doubt the right starting point, but I hope the committee will get around to considering the role of the state’s regional universities and technical colleges in preparing students throughout the state for jobs in AI. Odds are they’ll be the ones to educate and prepare a great many of the AI troops who will be needed to build and manage AI-related systems across the state.

Beginning to figure out what those jobs will be – and how to integrate them with this rapidly evolving new technology – should be at least part of the job of the Senate study committee.

And with any luck, we won’t need to call Arnold to save us.

Charles Hayslett is the author of the long-running troubleingodscountry.com blog.  He is also the Scholar in Residence at the Center for Middle Georgia Studies at Middle Georgia State University.  The views expressed in his columns are his own and are not necessarily those of the Center or the University.