In looking forward and embracing our future yet to come, I often find benefit in looking back. One of my favorite quotes by author/humorist Mark Twain, speaks to, with more than a bit of tongue in cheek...the American fear of innovation and ‘things new.’
“I am all for progress. It’s the damn change that I am against” Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens, 1835-1910).
In my own lifetime and career, I began with news operations, shooting film, equipment weighing hundreds of pounds, dot matrix printers and MS-DOS based computers, pre-Internet, Email and texting. The early adopters had mobile phones that looked like monstrous walkie-talkies, and pagers and began discussing sharing files and protocols on the interwebs, designed and intended primarily for academic research and advancing science.
The U.S. Industrial Revolution and factories moved a largely male workforce away from farms, mines, foundries, forges and repair shops onto the assembly lines. Fear of business and job losses were instead followed by the creation of labor unions, various workplace benefits and the many positive aspects of modern big business. Later as automation and robotics came on the scene, or as the Internet became part of the fabric of American life and business, again we feared the loss of jobs, needs for skills training and instead saw the most robust period of economic year over year growth in modern American history, including a handful of BALANCED federal budgets coming from Congress and the White House, despite divided government in the mid-1990s.
Now, we smile and in some cases tremble a bit, as the advent of Artificial Intelligence and sentience is becoming a reality for computers, and much of the world around us, including the workplace. As someone who still says Please and Thank You to Alexa in my kitchen and at the office, I am admittedly NOT a technology pioneer. I was self-taught on MS-DOS, and later the various iterations of Microsoft Windows. Still missing my beloved Blackberry, I have finally become reasonably adept at the multiple functions on my Android Smartphone.
But also as a fan of the Terminator film series, there is a corner of my brain awaiting the word that Skynet has gone live, and the age of man is about to be replaced by the age of computers. Thankfully there are engineers, academics and others leading the way here, to ensure that not only does not happen, but that Artificial Intelligence, like texting, Email, the internet, Wi-fi and so many now expected amenities of modern living continue to free up and serve humanity, and not serve up humans.
The Georgia Institute of Technology received a $65-million federal grant in late 2022 to develop teaching partnerships and models across Georgia, exposing middle and high school students to both the benefits (smart robots, drones and AR gaming) and the hard work involved (coding, system design, system security) of making AI and a wide variety of applications of same into reality. The federal Economic Development Administration grant is connecting and funding 16 projects across Georgia, each working to develop a future workforce skilled in the smart technologies needed to deploy AI innovation within the manufacturing sector.
During the first week of October, and including National Manufacturing Day, Georgia Artificial Intelligence in Manufacturing (Georgia AIM) Week , touched thousands of students, manufacturers and educators as a Georgia AIM Mobile Studio rolled across Georgia, only days after the devastation brought by Hurricane Helene. In an environment where a dose of hope helped lift many spirits, the Georgia AIM Mobile Studio brought smiles, inspiration and some bright aspirations into classrooms and educators from Moultrie to Atlanta and from Fort Valley to Athens.
“Georgia AIM Week allowed us to showcase the incredible partnerships with a range of organizations over the last two years. Artificial Intelligence and smart technologies will be game changes for small to medium-size manufacturers, and learning these technologies now opens doors for our workforce.” said Donna Ennis, Co-Director, Georgia AIM, based within the Enterprise Innovation Institute at Georgia Tech.
In Athens at the University of Georgia, on a sunny Homecoming weekend Friday, Ms. Ennis and others beamed on the STEM program lawn on UGA’s East Campus, demonstrating their wares while students interacted with the AI technologies available in the mobile studio. I will have to put my favored Twain quote aside for the moment...as I witness my favorite North Atlanta Trade School, located near the world famous Varsity, and my alma mater, UGA and its much more nascent Engineering School, working collaboratively and voluntarily together on a successful project. In that world...anything is possible.