Rutgers Experts and Tech Industry Leaders Explore Future of AI

As artificial intelligence continues to evolve, human judgement will still be essential, according to tech leaders and Rutgers experts.

An event hosted by the Institute for Data, Research and Innovation Science (IDRIS)  convened industry leaders, faculty, and students to explore AI’s future in several domains, including education, public administration, physical sciences, the workplace, and healthcare.

Rutgers-Newark Provost Jeffrey Robinson framed the symposium, part of Rutgers’ ROADMAPS AI Week, as representative of a broader mission. “We’re here to talk about topics that are extremely important not just for researchers, graduate students and folks on this campus but also to society,” Robinson said. “We bring together people from our community and the corporate community to work on complex problems.” 

He emphasized the collaborative nature of IDRIS, led by executive director Fay Cobb Payton, Special Advisor to the Chancellor for Innovation and a professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science.

Several experts at the event predicted that although AI was becoming an indispensable tool, it won’t replace humans in the workplace.

“There’s going to be a huge premium on the human piece,” said Boris Kozak of Meta, who leads engineering work in AI and is on the IDRIS advisory board, “I don’t think AI is going to take over jobs.”

Kozak described the history of AI, from early coding systems like Fortran, invented by IBM in the late 1950s, to the transformative emergence of agentic AI, which is capable of independently completing complex tasks over long periods of time, a development that made a great leap forward last spring.

“It created a way for an agent to work on its own for the first time, for many hours,” he said, calling the advancement a “watershed moment.’’
But even as AI systems grow more capable, they augment rather than replace human labor, said Kozak. 

“We aren’t working less, we’re orchestrating more,” he added. 

The most valuable workers will be those who can guide AI with good judgment and creativity, Kozak and others contended. Additional speakers from the tech industry highlighted both the promise and complexity of integrating AI into the real world.

Mary Strain, senior strategist for AI and machine learning at Amazon Web Services, urged universities to think beyond basic literacy. “I hear a lot about that,” she said. “I’d like to reframe. “How are we good stewards of the technology in our own lives and in our community?”
Strain listed the challenges  institutions must address such as bias, accuracy, copyright, and security.

Ronnie Falcon, the Chief Product Officer at the OpenMined Foundation, addressed one of the most problematic issues in AI research: access to data. She advocated for a process that allows researchers to analyze sensitive information without directly accessing it.

The goal is “empower researchers to answer important questions” while protecting both privacy and proprietary information—an essential step in understanding AI’s real-world impacts, she said.

A recurring theme throughout the symposium was the need to confront bias in AI systems. An IDRIS panel led by Rutgers-Newark alumnus Juan Rios, a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow who will join the School of Social Work faculty in the fall, emphasized the importance of incorporating diverse perspectives within AI development and using it to help improve lives. 

Panelists – including Ebony McGee, Professor of Innovation and Inclusion in the STEM Ecosystem at Johns Hopkins University and Michelle Rogers, Professor of Computing and Informatics of Drexel University – underscored that AI systems  reflect existing social inequalities. Rutgers-Newark Professor Gregory Porumbescu of the School of Public Affairs and Administration also participated.

The symposium  included a hands-on workshop led by AWS, where participants explored Amazon QuickSuite, an agentic AI-powered workspace launched in October to automate business workflows, research, and data analysis. Faculty and student researchers at the symposium discussed the best ways AI can be used to foster interdisciplinary work, while faculty participated in “lighting talks,’’ where they had three minutes to present AI-related research.

Rutgers faculty discussed projects ranging from using AI to improve math education to tracking health conditions in Newark and improve student wellness. A panel of Rutgers-Newark deans addressed how higher education must evolve in response to AI.

“My North Star is about the students, student experience and student success. We need to build both technical skills and critical thinking. We want them to know that we’re going to teach you how to use these tools and use them responsibly,’’ said Nancy La Vigne, dean of the School of Criminal Justice.

Dean Kaifeng Yang of the School of Public Affairs and Administration highlighted AI’s role in public leadership, while law school Dean Johanna Bond described it as a tool to expand access to justice and address disparities in housing, employment and other areas.

Payton asked how universities can support faculty in adopting AI responsibly.

As technology rapidly develops, the answer lies in taking the time to be deliberate, the deans agreed.