{"693240":{"#nid":"693240","#data":{"type":"news","title":"AI \u0026 Society: Harnessing the Good and Minimizing the Bad","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAI is poised to revolutionize medicine, energy, business, and much more. It\u2019s also poised to create radical societal change and is sparking apprehension about what comes next.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe positive and negative potential of AI was the focus of the first Georgia Tech \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/iac.gatech.edu\/ai-society\u0022\u003EAI \u0026amp; Society Series\u003C\/a\u003E event, hosted by the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts and the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/civicleadership.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EMichael E. Tennenbaum Family Institute for Technology and Civic Leadership\u003C\/a\u003E on Oct. 8.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cHow do we harness the technology for good and minimize the bad?\u201d said Georgia Tech Provost Raheem Beyah in his opening remarks. Understanding and planning for AI-driven societal changes will require a knowledge of history, economics, communication, and so much more \u2014 subjects grounded in the humanities and social sciences, he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cNo better place than Georgia Tech, and no better college than the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts to lead the discussion,\u201d he added.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe panel, \u201cWe, the People, and AI: The Future of Data, Energy, Health, and Human Rights,\u201d was moderated by Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts Dean Amanda Murdie and included Wendy H. Wong, Professor, University of British Columbia \u2013 Okanagan Campus; Caroline Gwynn Monagle, Vice President, Strategic Initiatives, R1 RCM; and Marilyn A. Brown, Regents\u2019 and Brook Byers Professor, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOne focus of the evening was data privacy. Many people are giving AI agents and other systems more and more access to their private information in the name of convenience and efficiency.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWong, author of the book \u201cWe, the Data: Human Rights in the Digital Age,\u201d discussed how our digital lives create massive amounts of data being collected, analyzed, bought, and sold.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI think about data as sticky, like literally like gum on the bottom of your shoe. Really easy to make \u2026 and really hard to get off,\u201d Wong said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIndividuals often lack access and control of data being created about them.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe data about you don\u2019t belong to you. They belong to the data collector,\u201d she said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAI has only accelerated this data collection and intensifies the need to explore whether human rights should be extended to cover our digital data.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cAI is not happening to you. AI is happening, and you have a way to think about what you want out of that,\u201d Wong said. \u201cWe are all data stakeholders.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAI\u2019s possible impacts on energy and sustainability were also discussed. Brown, an expert in sustainable energy technologies and policy, shared what excites her about AI\u2019s possible uses related to sustainability.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cAI can optimize the electricity grid. It can improve industrial processes, reduce waste, predict equipment failures, [and] help integrate variable renewable energy into the system,\u201d Brown said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMeanwhile, AI\u2019s high consumption of energy is a challenge yet to be overcome and could produce unequal environmental and economic impacts, Brown said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cMy concern is that we\u2019re not paying attention to who\u2019s going to bear the consequences of all of that pollution relative to who is going to be benefiting from the economic growth and wealth of AI.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFrom medical breakthroughs to doctors taking AI notes during appointments, AI\u2019s influence on health and medicine was also discussed.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMonagle, a leader in the healthcare technology and services industry, discussed how AI is improving processes around healthcare and insurance but also cautioned that only certain functions could be ceded to technology and that human expertise was still very valuable in the healthcare space.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe still have to be the ones in the driver\u2019s seat, and that means we still have to be experts in our fields. We can\u2019t just rely on AI to tell us everything,\u201d Monagle said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHigher education, and the liberal arts in particular, have an important role to play in training future professionals to consider factors beyond just technology and the bottom line when implementing AI and other technologies in their fields, Monagle said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt\u2019s important that universities teach people to step back and think holistically about what we are building. Why are we building it? What is it going to achieve? Is this aligned with our values? And what are our values?\u201d said Monagle.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe positive and negative potential of AI was the focus of the first Georgia Tech AI \u0026amp; Society Series event, hosted by the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts and the Michael E. Tennenbaum Family Institute for Technology and Civic Leadership on Oct. 8.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"The positive and negative potential of AI was the focus of the first Georgia Tech AI \u0026 Society Series event, hosted by the Ivan Allen College and the Tennenbaum Family Institute for Technology and Civic Leadership."}],"uid":"35777","created_gmt":"2026-10-14 16:37:50","changed_gmt":"2026-10-14 17:46:50","author":"Stephanie Kadel","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-10-14T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-10-14T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"681426":{"id":"681426","type":"image","title":"Dean Amanda Murdie and panelists Wendy H. Wong, Marilyn A. Brown, and Gwynn Monagle onstage during the AI \u0026 Society Series event on Oct. 8, 2026. ","body":"\u003Cp\u003EDean Amanda Murdie and panelists Wendy H. Wong, Marilyn A. Brown, and Gwynn Monagle seated onstage during the AI \u0026amp; Society Series event on Oct. 8, 2026.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","created":"1791995895","gmt_created":"2026-10-14 16:38:15","changed":"1791996582","gmt_changed":"2026-10-14 16:49:42","alt":"Dean Amanda Murdie and panelists Wendy H. Wong, Marilyn A. Brown, and Gwynn Monagle seated onstage during the AI \u0026 Society Series event on Oct. 8, 2026. ","file":{"fid":"265831","name":"20261008-CCW00240.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/10\/14\/20261008-CCW00240.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/10\/14\/20261008-CCW00240.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":13257064,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/10\/14\/20261008-CCW00240.jpg?itok=5XkthPh2"}}},"media_ids":["681426"],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/iac.gatech.edu\/ai-society","title":"AI \u0026 Society Series"},{"url":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/ZQswFN3vyQw","title":"Watch Event Recording"}],"groups":[{"id":"1281","name":"Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EMegan McRainey\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:megan.mcrainey@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Emegan.mcrainey@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}