Suffolk’s upcoming AI club made a sudden appearance on students’ Instagram recommended feed, leading some to wonder what an AI club may entail.
AI, in this case, can range from large language models, like ChatGPT, which are trained on a large amount of data and can react to human input easily — to older forms like Reactive Machine AI, which make up social media algorithms. AI has already made up a much larger portion of modern life than the newer GPT-style chatbots.
While the club has yet to be registered on SU Connect, Kate Carrier, a senior business economics major and the AI club’s president, says the club is “Finally greenlighted and up and running,” after having come up with the idea for a class project and deciding to make it a reality.
The AI club plans on hosting a wide variety of activities, such as hackathons, for those who are interested in the engineering aspect, as well as panels with industry specialists to discuss the ethical and business side of AI usage.
“We want to invite people from the healthcare industry, finance and business,” said Carrier.
AI can be a controversial issue, especially in relation to how it impacts certain industries. The AI club plans to address how AI is shaping the future of the workforce and invites discussion of the ethics of AI use. Some argue that school curricula are not up to date with AI education, which is a gap the club seeks to fill.
Suffolk University’s Executive in Residence and Information Systems and Operations Management, Dimitri Tcherevi, will be a valuable advisor and resource for the new club.
“We are updating the school curriculum to better prepare our graduates for the world shaped by AI,” said Tcherevik.
The AI club seeks to educate those curious about how AI works, as well as the various potential uses for it. They plan to be a blend between computer science, business and economics in order to tackle all sides of AI and how students would like to interact with it.
“As an AI startup founder and an Executive in Residence at Sawyer Business School, I am fortunate to be assisting and advising this group of bright students and AI Club members,” said Tcherevik.
The AI club can be found at @ai_suffolk on Instagram with a general interest form linked in their bio. Students can fill out the form to give their input on what kind of activities they would like to do and get updated on future events.
