As the University of Minnesota delves deeper into the world of artificial intelligence, students are left questioning the benefits and drawbacks of AI integration in seemingly every part of their modern lives. 

Over the past few months, the University has worked closely with Google and its AI language model, Gemini, in an effort to keep students competitive in a modern, AI-driven market. On Tuesday, the University announced in a brief that they plan to continue this push, even going as far as to announce Galin Jones, the director of the University’s School of Statistics, as vice provost for AI.

Archit Lal studies computer science at the University. Over the course of last summer, he developed an AI agent for his startup, Altivis, that companies can use to collect sales data from customers, among other tasks.

The agent’s purpose is to automate many processes that normally require human work. After working so deeply with the technology, Lal advocates for AI in any field where it can replace traditional human work.

“Get as much of your work that can be done by AI, just make it do it,” Lal said. “Why not?” 

Not everyone is as sold as Lal. Jack DeCapua, a civil engineering student, worries about AI replacing an individual’s autonomy, a concern he has developed after observing his and others’ use of it in their schooling. 

DeCapua noticed himself getting lazy and uploading his homework assignments to the University-funded Gemini language model. He later realized that this was destroying his ability to learn the content.

“I always wonder how there are some people who ask, ‘How did you make it through your first 18 years of life without AI,’ and now all of a sudden you can’t go without it,” DeCapua said. 

After his realization, DeCapua said he replaced time spent with chatbots with office hours and online resources, and noted that his life really has not changed after implementing this decision in his life. 

Neither DeCapua nor Lal expressed concern about AI taking their future jobs. Jayla Petersen, a nursing student, did. 

Petersen understands the importance of decision-making as a nurse. She said she understands the human element to making those decisions, but worries about AI doing it for nurses — a move she can see disrupting the nursing profession. 

“You have to make really fast decisions, and AI can make those decisions that fast,” Petersen said. 

Petersen, like Lauer and DeCapua, is concerned about technology replacing human autonomy. She is especially worried about the efficiency of nurses after whisking their work away to a chatbot for four years. 

“[AI] destroys critical thinking skills and people’s ability to focus, because you just put it in and it just does all the work for you,” Petersen said. 

Petersen also said she has concerns about the environmental impacts of this technology. This concern is shared by Claire Lauer, an undergraduate at Carlson.

“It’s really bad for the environment, a lot of water is getting wasted,” Lauer said. 

Despite her concerns for the environment and others about individual autonomy, Lauer still uses the technology. She said she uses AI for her schoolwork, most often when she gets stuck on a problem.

“I’ll usually just plug it in,” Lauer said. “I definitely don’t use it very ethically.”

Lauer expresses concern for the younger generations’ ability to think creatively. For this demographic, Lal too asks what the impact of this technology may be. 

Lauer calls on government policy to make a decision one way or another about AI’s place in society. 

“We either need to ban it, or we don’t,” Lauer said. 

She believes the technology is bad and should be banned. But until it is, she will continue to use it.

Lal echoes this all-or-nothing approach, but argues for AI’s total assimilation into society. He believes in AI’s potential to free up people’s time.

“Why is a human wasting his precious time?” Lal said. 

In a hypothetical world that subtracts the environmental impact of AI, DeCapua could see himself using the technology, but only sparingly. He sees the real benefit of an agent in saving time.

“It can be a really nice, useful tool,” DeCapua said. “Honestly, there’s so many things you can use it for.”