Exploring the future of artificial intelligence

By Kevin Manne

On one side of the equation is a region fighting population loss, brain drain and uneven economic mobility. On the other is artificial intelligence: a technology reshaping every industry, creating new careers faster than most families, teachers or employers can keep up.

Between them is an access gap. And much like federal programs that were established to develop cybersecurity experts 20 years ago, today’s national trends point to a need for experts in AI.

For parents, headlines make AI sound either like cheating software or job-stealing automation. What’s missing in that story is agency: the idea that you can learn how it works, question it, shape it and insist it be used responsibly.

UB faculty were already seeing up close how local teens were experimenting with tools like ChatGPT, image generators and AI copilots, but most had never spoken with a professor, never stepped into a university research lab and never heard that AI could be used to help start a company, solve a civic problem or create a career. 

These needs and concerns were the driving force behind the new AI Experience at UB, a free, two-day program that introduces middle- and high-school students to AI through interactive projects, real-world experiments and ethical discussions.

Over their break last summer, 23 tech-savvy teens from 14 local schools came to campus and learned about the foundations of AI and machine learning, received hands-on training with a range of AI tools, used AI to develop and pitch innovative business ideas, built video games and learned about various aspects of ethics and trust. 

From the beginning, the faculty members designed the program more like a startup sprint than a lecture: fast, hands-on, practical and rooted in ethics. 

During one lesson, faculty led the students through a physical simulation to help them understand the inner workings of a neural network, demonstrating that AI isn’t magic.

“The students learned how an AI model takes an input, a picture in our case, and uses math to predict an output, which was the type of animal in our picture,” says Kevin Cleary, clinical associate professor of management science and systems, who developed the simulation. “Throughout the process, the students each played the role of various parts of the neural network and manually calculated the math to produce a prediction at the end.”

By the end, they could explain how math, logic and data turn into an AI decision. That moment is critical: When you demystify AI, you also hand students confidence.

The AI Experience at UB was hosted by the School of Management’s Center for AI Business Innovation and the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences’ Center of Excellence in Information Systems Assurance Research and Education, in collaboration with the UB Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science.

According to Dominic Sellitto, clinical associate professor of management science and systems, and assistant faculty director of the Center for AI Business Innovation, the shift he saw in students from “AI is scary and mysterious” to “AI is a tool I can use and question,” is the foundation of long-term impact. And it’s just the beginning of what UB and the School of Management have planned.

“When middle schoolers stand up, pitch AI-driven solutions and are taken seriously by university faculty, they start seeing themselves in tomorrow’s innovation economy, and so do their peers,” he says. “This was the first of many K-12 experiences we will be bringing to the community, and we look forward to providing platforms to foster creative, impactful and ethical engagement with these exciting new technologies.”

The faculty team blended technical depth, business relevance and inclusive education. Leading the program with Cleary and Sellitto were management faculty members Laura Amo, Joana Gaia, Celine Krzan and David Murray, along with Shambhu Upadhyaya from engineering.

The program was supported by UB’s AI Seed Funding Grants, which are dedicated funds to enable faculty across campus to integrate generative AI into course and curricular redesign. Allocated seed grant funds may be used for a variety of purposes, such as bringing external speakers to campus, creating working groups and learning communities within and across majors and degree programs, or enhancing an existing course.