Miami embraces AI, with a healthy dose of doubt
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Miami University is exploring where artificial intelligence can make our lives better — and where it might do more harm than good.
Why it matters: AI isn't going back in the box, campus officials say. And today's students will help decide how it's used tomorrow.
Driving the news: Miami's Board of Trustees recently approved a new Center for AI, tapping experience design professor Dennis Cheatham to lead it.
- The center aims to make an impact through research and partnerships with the region's major corporations and tech companies.
The intrigue: "I'm still a skeptic," Cheatham tells Axios.
- He's spent decades studying how people use technology. Despite leading an AI center and understanding the technology's potential, he still has reservations.
- "A skeptic hasn't made up their mind like a cynic and given up, but we still need to test out what we're examining and what we're using."
The big picture: Other Southwest Ohio universities are finding their own ways to teach AI.
- Xavier University opened The Loop in August to help students and faculty build AI skills.
- University of Cincinnati offers BearcatGPT, a secure platform with Claude and more than 200 user-built AI agents, UC vice president Bharath Prabhakaran tells Axios.
- University of Dayton now requires freshmen to study AI fundamentals and human dignity.
Miami is doing that too. Its AI in the Majors initiative will bring AI education into at least one major in every department by May 2027, with plans to eventually reach all majors.
- Its center will also study the technology through 14 lenses, including security, the arts and public discourse.
Zoom out: The center also aims to tackle real-world problems and ethical questions.
- Cheatham points to potential partnerships with the likes of Procter & Gamble and any number of local aviation companies.
- The hope is to turn research into products and patents, give students hands-on experience and attract outside funding.
What's next: The center is so new it still needs a home on campus — and even a website, Cheatham jokes.
- Plans include a national governance board of about eight experts, including industry professionals and an ethicist.
- An AI symposium next April will include science, engineering, the arts and society, with businesses and policymakers joining researchers.
- "This is the moment where Miami shares with the world what we're learning," Cheatham says.