Dr. Jessica A. Stansbury, director of The University of Baltimore's Center for AI Learning and Community-Engaged Innovation and director of teaching and learning excellence for UBalt's Center for Excellence in Learning, Teaching and Technology, writes in the Baltimore Business Journal that the economic success of Baltimore depends in part on a population that is fluent in generative AI. At UBalt, she says, familiarity with artificial intelliegnce is rapidly on the rise.
[The public is asking] "what universities are doing—how we are preparing students for a world already transformed by technology," she writes. "Nowhere is that responsibility more urgent than in Baltimore."
Noting that Baltimore's economy is "built on a mix of professional, trade, blue- and white-collar and STEM-oriented employment," Dr. Stansbury points out that AI is already part of that landscape, and that a familiarity with the technology may improve the city's outlook.
"The question is not whether AI will reshape the work of this city—it already has," she writes. "The question is whether our institutions and our city are prepared to support that change and position Baltimore's workforce to thrive."
At The University of Baltimore, familiarity with generative AI has increased by 25 percent in the past two years, Dr. Stansbury says.
"Faculty are integrating AI into lesson design, feedback and the modeling of critical thinking, with 60 percent now reporting high engagement. They're using AI to enhance rather than replace teaching.
"Students, meanwhile, are becoming more ethically attentive. UBalt data show that student concern about AI-enabled academic dishonesty has grown, as students witness peers testing the boundaries of these tools. That is not evidence of moral decline. It is ethical maturation—a student body seeking fairness, clarity and guidance."
Read Dr. Stansbury's opinion piece in the Baltimore Business Journal.
Learn more about UBalt's Center for AI Learning and Community-Engaged Innovation.