TECH AND SOCIETY
"AI Is Now" and Shaping Policy, Health Care, Business, and Education, Says Expert Panel

Author Alan Wilson Watts said, “The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance." This is especially true in the technology space, where the speed of innovation can be overwhelming. It seems impossible to have a viable five-year plan when the newest AI iteration is deemed obsolete in six months. So, what can we do to prepare ourselves?

At the October 6 event “Everyday AI: Shaping Public Policy Healthcare, Workforce, Business, and Education,” held at Lehman College, experts in these fields attempted to address those fears by exploring the real-world impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and how we can use it to our professional advantage.

Opening speaker Sherman Browne began the discussion, noting that the fear we experience upon encountering new technology produces a fork in the road, and we all have a choice to make.

 “Will we Forget Everything And Run, or Face Everything And Rise?” he asked the crowd. “We choose the latter.”

Lehman President Dr. Fernando Delgado echoed the sentiment. He described how tools like AI are a complement to human ability – an adjunct to which humans can delegate menial tasks, leaving more of their quality attention for meaningful work.

“To ignore AI is to ignore all potential possibilities; beyond fear, there is opportunity,” Delgado said. “Today is about more than just tech. It’s about people, and about how AI helps us to be better.” 

How AI Impacts Higher Education and Workforce Development

Graduate School of Social Service Professor Lauri Goldkind, Ph.D., moderated the day’s first panel discussion. The panel included:

• David Adams – CEO, Urban Assembly

• Kimberly Kendall – Dean, School of Continuing Professional Studies, Lehman College

• Debbie Roman – Managing Director, Per Scholas, NY

• Lisa Sorin – President, Bronx Chamber of Commerce

How to Think About AI

Sorin described AI as “tech at its best,” and a way people can make their lives easier. But there is no free lunch; for AI to be most useful, we must learn to use it responsibly. 

“Our responsibility to Bronx businesses is to help them demystify the fear about what AI means,” Sorin said. “Used correctly, intentionally, and with security, AI will make our businesses thrive.” 

To Adams, AI is flexibility. He offered coders as an example. Where, at one time, coders needed to write thousands of lines of code from scratch, now they can augment their abilities with the new tech to be even more effective. As the AI learns through repetition and iteration, there is no need to start from scratch anymore. This begets the freedom of additional time, which comes with the  possibilities for exploration and breakthrough. 

“The machine learns from our experiences,” he said. “AI is about flexibility.”

Kendall added that while AI is not new, its popularity’s explosion after the release of ChatGPT certainly is. Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Gemini, she said, are just part of a continuum that has been progressing for decades. 

“This tech is not an ends; it’s a means,” she said. “We need to know how to use it.”

What Skills do Current Students Need in the Age of AI?

Panelists agreed that for the next generations of workers to thrive in an AI-focused world, they will need to double down on their humanity. However, this doesn’t mean they can let the tech world pass them by. Like most things in life, they will need to find balance. 

“We will always need high-quality interactions grounded in human relationships,” Adams said. “Nonprofits need to think about how to be more human in the age of AI.”

Adams said doctors and teachers are ideal examples of professions in which AI allows humans to be better humans. With machines taking on the brunt of the technical work, these professionals will have more time to reinvest with their patients and students. This leads to better outcomes for everyone. 

“The value of personal relationships will skyrocket,” Roman said, also stressing the importance of ethical AI use. 

Roman said that at Per Scholas, students have access to a tutor chatbot – but they can’t rely on it wholeheartedly. Per Scholas ensures these students know how to think critically and formulate answers on their own, so they can confirm the chatbot’s information is accurate. 

Kendall said students need to be more than just consumers in this new age. While anyone can type a prompt into an LLM, the real value is knowing the system well enough to start building your own creations. 

“The ability to create AI agents and evaluate the technology is more important than any one software or user,” she said.

Partnerships and Creative Local Uses of AI

The event’s panelists aren’t just having theoretical conversations about AI and calling it a day. They are implementing it in real time to make their organizations more efficient and New York City a better place to live. 

Adams detailed how AI is enabling Urban Assembly to drive down the cost of teacher feedback, leaving more time and budget for the teachers themselves. To get high-quality instructional feedback for the Urban Assembly teachers, Adams explained it would cost the organization $3 million per year in instructional coaches. 

With new technology, Urban Assembly is able to scale the feedback system at one-tenth of the cost. Microphones and cameras were placed in the classroom, allowing teachers to watch themselves on tape, with AI technology viewing lessons in real time and providing the feedback typically given by an instructional coach. The budget savings from this new system have allowed Urban Assembly to provide teachers with more resources to maximize student learning outcomes. 

Additionally, Sorin announced a new partnership between the Bronx and Google that will supercharge small business success in the borough through AI. According to the Bronx Chamber of Commerce’s Instagram, the “AI Advantage Program” will help local businesses harness AI for innovation, efficiency, and growth—and participants who complete the program will become eligible for an “exciting business opportunity.” 

How Will AI Impact Social Workers?

AI is not a monolith; it is a set of capabilities and tools driven by computational power and data. It is working itself into every aspect of our lives – professional and personal. It impacts everyone. 

Is social work different? At this point, it’s hard to say.

More than maybe any sector, social work’s foundation is built upon human relationships. Whether one is a private practice therapist or a public policy analyst, the ability to form and maintain high-quality relationships is vital to social work success. 

Studies have shown mixed results with AI use in social work. Goldkind’s research has found that there are benefits and detriments. Balance and remaining a critical consumer of AI tools and output are important.  

But we can’t stop prodding and asking questions there, because the crucial question is whether the detriments are outweighing the benefits in this particularly sensitive arena. 

Detailed profiles of individuals negatively affected by LLM chats are now a regular occurrence. Some have resulted in murder and suicide. US states, like Illinois, have passed legislation regulating and restricting how mental health professionals, like social workers, may use AI in their jobs, if at all, and importantly, making clear that AI cannot serve as a therapist. 

Goldkind has also researched and spoken about the biases inherent in the AI tools themselves, due both to the flaws in the underlying data used to train the models as well as the biases users themselves bring to their interaction with machines. 

Overall, social workers cannot bury their heads in the sand and avoid AI completely. Professionals seem to benefit from AI much like other professions – using it to complete administrative tasks while the deep relational work is left to the human. And if nothing else, with increasing numbers of people negatively impacting their mental health due to AI use, social workers need to be aware of how these tools work and what can be done to break through to these individuals. 

So, will the profession forget everything and run, or face everything and rise?