In a series of videos UF posted on April Fools’ Day, UF President Kent Fuchs fired himself and the rest of UF’s administrative staff, leaving decisions up to the software of UF’s artificially intelligent supercomputer.

While UF administration won’t abandon Tigert Hall any time soon, AI capabilities on campus really are advancing.

Fuchs is known for his yearly April Fools’ jokes, but didn’t pull one last year because of the onset of COVID-19. In 2019, Fuchs debuted his new football uniform as a prank. The return of the joke this year played on UF’s growing AI program and the fears some people have about AI technology. UF’s AI program, which has $70 million in funding, is unique because while most universities with AI technology usually only use it for programs related to computer science, UF plans to use AI within every college at the university.

As UF’s AI system goes through its early rollout stages, fears of job automation may become more realized around campus. But UF administrators are urging people not to panic.

“The role of AI is not to replace people. It’s to make people more effective,” UF president Kent Fuchs said. He said he likes using the phrase “amplified intelligence” to make that clear.

UF hopes to hire 100 new staff members who specialize in AI technology by Fall, Fuchs said. Additionally, the university looks to hire specialists in AI ethics to ensure the technology is deployed responsibly. This is important because experts in AI are concerned about how bias seeps into these machines, according to the Harvard Business Review. A ProPublica investigation found an AI algorithm in the Broward County justice system mislabeled Black defendants as high-risk twice as much as it did white defendants. 

UF’s AI system was added to the school’s supercomputer, HiPerGator, last Summer. Hardware tech company Nvidia donated the system along with $25 million to help implement the program across campus. The company’s co-founder Chris Malachowsky, a UF alumni, matched Nvidia’s donation. Meanwhile, UF is pouring $20 million of its own money into the project. These funds are going toward building Malachowsky Hall, which will house several programs that focus on AI use.

UF aims to offer its newest technology to students pursuing any degree, whether it’s related to arts or agriculture, Fuchs said. Once the technology is fully in place, he wants everyone at UF to have some knowledge of AI by the time they graduate.

But UF students and faculty won’t be the only ones benefiting from the AI technology. Fuchs called all the presidents of universities within the Southeastern Conference and the State University System of Florida to offer them a chance to participate in AI research along with UF. He wants UF to help other institutions implement AI technology and serve as an example for universities across the nation. 

For now, UF is focused on incorporating AI into its own programs. 

Gators coach Dan Mullen doesn’t have to worry about losing his job to a robot anytime soon, but he can look forward to getting help from one in the very near future. 

UF’s Institute of Coaching will be one of the many programs to have access to AI technology. The technology will help coaches understand data and make decisions on recruiting, hiring and player assignments, Michael Reid, dean of UF’s College of Health and Human Performance, said.

Another possibility of AI is monitoring player performance, which would be done by placing wearable technology onto players, Reid said. The devices would record data such as heart rate and acceleration rate that can later be used to help athletes improve their abilities on the field.

Advancing athletic performance with data analytics is already widely used among sports teams and companies, Reid said, for things such as measuring a baseball pitcher’s pitch velocity. UF’s technology would aim to improve the way data is interpreted and used by coaches.

UF’s College of Medicine will also use the AI technology to enhance data analytics, Patrick Tighe, an associate professor at UF’s Department of Anesthesiology, said. The data would better a doctor’s ability to predict the benefits a patient may get from surgery, how long it will take a patient to recover from surgery and whether a patient is at risk for illness after surgery. 

It’s also important to research ethics in using AI for medical data, Tighe said. Researchers at UF’s Health Science Center are already thinking about how AI tools can be misused, Tighe said. Researchers at UF want to make sure the data is used fairly and accurately.

The algorithms have to be able to represent groups equally to ensure data is fair and accurate, Tighe said. UF Researchers are making sure to emphasize the importance of collecting data from medically diverse groups of patients so doctors can individualize treatment.

“One of the core themes for this academic hub and artificial intelligence revolves around the concept of trustworthy AI,” Tighe said. 

AI will not replace certain human medical functions like physical therapy, nursing care and pharmacy care anytime soon, Tighe said.

“Taking care of other human beings who are ill, there’s nothing artificial about that. That requires a human touch,” Tighe said.

Although some professors may drone on during lectures at times, actual drones won’t replace the last human aspect of online classes this April Fools’ Day.

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CLEMSON – If you hear Adam Smith say something about a “bird brain,” don’t worry, he’s not degrading anyone. In fact, it’s a compliment of sorts.

Smith, a paleontologist and curator of the Clemson University Bob Campbell Geology Museum, is co-author of a study that shows how birds’ brains have changed over the millennia. Paleontologists study fossils to learn more about the history of the Earth. Smith said this study is a valuable tool to use for exploring the evolution of human intelligence.

“Studies of intelligence and cognition have been largely restricted to mammals,” Smith said. “But, more recently, scientists have discovered that some birds, particularly crows and parrots, have mental capacities that far exceed many types of mammals. I strongly believe that learning more about the ways avian and mammalian intelligence are alike, and different, is a valuable tool for exploring the evolution of human intelligence.”

The study itself

Birds are considered direct descendants of theropod dinosaurs. These dinosaurs moved around on two legs, had three-toed feet, a furcula (wishbone), air-filled bones, feathers, and laid eggs. Today, there are about 9,300 living species of birds.

The bird brain study samples three dinosaur groups – non-avian dinosaurs, archaic birds, and modern birds – to assess how brain size has changed over time. For their study, the researchers reconstructed the avian, or bird, brain’s evolution. They used a dataset of dinosaur brains that included information about extinct birds such as the Great Auk and Archaeopteryx, as well as living birds and even birds that didn’t fly. Some of these ancient birds would’ve been found during the Cretaceous Period when dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops roamed the Earth. The Cretaceous Period ended about 66 million years ago when a meteorite slammed into the planet, dooming non-avian dinosaurs and killing off a rather large group of archaic birds that do not have any descendants.

Birds that survived the meteorite-related catastrophe are believed to have been relatively small. Soon afterward, some lineages of modern birds expanded greatly in body size to fill roles left empty by the extinction of large non-avian dinosaurs. At the same time, other lineages of birds were miniaturizing to exploit other resources in their environment.

“Brain size, body size, and ecology are all interrelated in quite complex ways,” Smith said. “Conventional wisdom tells us that brain size and body size are relatively tightly linked. But, what we found was that brain size and body size were changing in much more complex ways than expected.”

Bird brains are remarkable

Corvids and parrots are two bird groups the team found to have a remarkable brain size. Corvids include birds like ravens, crows, and their close relatives. These bird groups have a remarkable cognitive capacity. They can learn and use language and tools, as well as remember human faces. Researchers say these birds’ brains evolved at a high rate to achieve these feats, as well as their sizeable brain-body size ratio.

“Fossils tell us that body sizes, skull sizes, and brain sizes have changed frequently throughout the evolution of birds,” Smith said. “Still, the complex relationship between these changes remains largely unexplored. We did find there are different ways birds achieve large brains and because larger brains typically correlate with increased intelligence, this study sheds some light on the beautiful complexity of evolution.”

The researchers say crows are the birds’ equivalent of hominins or human ancestors. The study shows crows evolved proportionally large brains by simultaneously increasing the sizes of their bodies and brains, with brain size increasing more rapidly.

“Anyone who has spent time around parrots and crows has seen for themselves just how smart these birds really are,” Smith said. “As a scientist who studies these fascinating creatures, it’s very satisfying to be able to find some hard data to back up what was already suspected, that being called bird-brained is actually quite a compliment. It’s also exciting to consider the complexity of potential paths to avian intelligence as this provides more questions and endless paths for future research.”

Joining Smith in this study are other paleontologists and evolutionary biologists from around the world. A report about the study, The Evolution of Large Bird Brains, can be found in the online version of Nature World News.

Anyone who wants to learn more about this study and others can visit Smith at Clemson’s Bob Campbell Geology Museum at 140 Discovery Lane Clemson, SC 29634-0174 when it reopens after the COVID-19 quarantine.

“The museum does feature some fascinating exhibits that include all of the dinosaurian groups mentioned in this article – non-avian dinosaurs, archaic birds and modern birds,” Smith said. “There also is a very informative exhibit on hominid evolution that includes aspects of human cognitive development over time.

“We have plans to expand our exhibit on dinosaur evolution, which will include examples of brain endocasts, which is a 3D cast of a brain showing all of the folds and features. The expanded exhibit definitely will include some of the more exciting results from our recent study. We invite everyone to be on the lookout for our new exhibit and come visit the museum when we reopen.”

Until the museum reopens, Smith said there are great resources available on the museum’s website, including a virtual tour of the museum.

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