Kerry Prather: Liberal arts, artificial intelligence thrive together

Franklin College recently had the pleasure of hosting the annual Women in Business breakfast program sponsored by Indy Chamber. The annual event brings to our campus more than 100 of the area’s most engaged and successful women leaders in all areas of commerce.

This year’s event focused on the role of artificial intelligence in the workplace, and the panel discussion was incredibly enlightening. As one would expect, these industry leaders and their employees are using AI in many applications of their work, and they offered great insights into both the potential and the risks that have come with the evolution of generative AI.

Perhaps the seminal and most universal insight gleaned from the program was the fact that AI is not able to provide the unique human skills necessary for problem-solving. It enables professionals to save enormous time and effort gathering data—and even synthesizing it to some extent—but it cannot accomplish the most sophisticated and critical tasks that only humans can achieve through creative and critical thinking and collaboration. One of the panelists outlined the sequence of obtaining usable data from an AI source and concluded with, “Then we hand that information to a liberal arts graduate who creatively makes sense of it all.”

Anticipating this and other new-age digital technologies, Franklin College embarked on a program four years ago to embed digital fluency into the entire liberal arts curriculum. This initiative, originally funded by a grant from Lilly Endowment Inc., reflected our confidence that technology should enhance liberal arts education.

The best preparation for the rapidly changing nature of the information economy is the combination of the “power” skills of the liberal arts—critical thinking, analytical reasoning, collaborative engagement and effective communication—with proficiency in the most current digital tools aligned with all areas of study and ultimate career paths. This embrace of digital education enables us to make a compelling argument for not only the relevance of the liberal arts but also their superiority in preparing students for the professional opportunities of the future.

Every day in our classrooms, AI and other digital tools are leveraged to enhance student learning. While business students use AI to develop enhanced search engine optimization strategies, English students are generating story ideas and learning what AI can and cannot do effectively. Math students use AI image-recognition systems to better understand big data and its uses, while journalism students generate stories to practice editing and headline creation. The examples continue throughout the curriculum.

Recent developments of generative artificial intelligence have certainly presented challenges in higher education, but those are manageable, and most actually create learning opportunities about AI’s advantages and limitations. Franklin College has embraced the technology, recognizing its potential to equip students with another tool for learning and career preparation. Our Center for Tech Innovation is a hub of activity, from the maker space with 3D printers to the podcast studio to the virtual reality lab.

Today’s students recognize the power of technology to help them fully use their liberal arts education. We help them learn how to use that technology responsibly, effectively and efficiently.

As artificial intelligence and its applications evolve daily, we welcome future iterations of tech tools that will further enhance the liberal arts education and career preparation of our students. Technology can ignite that experience in innumerable ways, and we are watching that happen in our classrooms daily. The liberal arts welcome that evolution of technology to better serve our students and the industries that await them upon graduation.•

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Prather was named president of Franklin College in 2020.