October 14, 2025

Jessica Stansbury: AI Is a Different Kind of Innovation

Dr. Jessica Stansbury, founding director of UBalt's Center for AI Learning and Community-Engaged Innovation
Dr. Jessica Stansbury, founding director of UBalt's Center for AI Learning and Community-Engaged Innovation

With artificial intelligence now a part of everyday life, more people are looking for previous technological innovations to gauge its real impact on society, and to prepare for what's next. Dr. Jessica Stansbury, founding director of UBalt's Center for AI Learning and Community-Engaged Innovation (CAILI) and director of Teaching and Learning Excellence for the University's Center for Excellence in Learning, Teaching and Technology (CELTT), tells Delmarva Today radio that it may not be helpful to look back to breakthroughs like the handheld calculator as a way to understand AI's capacity to influence the future.

 

It's not unusual for people to remember what the world was like before the calculator as a way to gauge AI's influence on modern life, Stansbury says.

 

With a calculator, "You type in an equation and it spits out an answer," she says. "The difference is, when you put something into the calculator, you're not going to get a new answer every time, you're not getting a different answer every time, With generative AI, you're getting a different response every time because it's creating the road as it goes."

 

Previous technological breakthroughs, Dr. Stansbury notes, didn't need new policies the way AI does. This technology is different, and it's growing rapidly. While AI is a tool, she says, it holds more potential to change society, especially wshen it comes to education, than what came before.

 

Listen to Dr. Stansbury's interview on Delmarva Today.

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