Month: May 2023

Artificial intelligence was once the stuff of sci-fi dreams, and though it has been available in some form for many years, 2023 has marked a sea change for AI. New chat bots seem to launch by the day, and backlash has already begun to foment. The “godfather of AI,” Geoffrey Hinton, left Google, warning of the dangers of the invention, and Writer’s Guild strikers have named AI as a threat to their livelihoods.

Advancements in the ease-of-use and sophistication of AI have prompted companies around the world to integrate the most powerful technology of the moment—and maybe for years to come—into their businesses. Now, Charlottesville’s techies are harnessing AI to achieve all sorts of research and marketing goals, but each application comes with its own risks and rewards.

The origins of AI 

Before AI, machine learning developed. “The goal of ML is to extract patterns from data,” says Yangfeng Ji, the William Wulf Career Enhancement Professor in the University of Virginia’s computer science department. For example, looking at restaurant reviews, a machine trained on data sets can examine the data and figure out which words are related to positive reviews and which words are related to negative reviews. The machine extracts patterns and then predicts something from them, such as whether to add a restaurant to suggested recommendations for a user. “Machine learning is a way to achieve artificial intelligence,” Ji says.

Ji says AI began when people started trying to build and train computers to mimic human-level intelligence and perform tasks in the way a human would, in several aspects. For each aspect, “we try to create a research subject to study it,” Ji says. “To name two examples, we have natural language processing, where the goal is to understand human communication in the natural language. Computer vision teaches the computer to recognize and identify a human face or a different object in an image.” 

Charlottesville is a “hub for AI” work and research, says John Elder, who has owned Elder Research for nearly 30 years. He notes that the university here has researchers and professors who train students in AI and machine learning, and many graduates like living here. Elder, whose company creates business value from client’s data, says, “Alumni of our organization have also started or staffed other analytic firms nearby. Charlottesville is very strong, for its size, in data science, just like it is in good restaurants. We also have an abundance of hedge funds and venture capitalists here, which likely further amplifies local innovation.”

Artificial intelligence used by companies reaches far beyond the free version of ChatGPT (which stands for “generative pre-trained transformer”), an assistive, natural-language bot available online through Microsoft’s OpenAI. OpenAI offers more robust products, like the GPT-4 model that is available as an application programming interface, or API, for developers. Other large companies also offer AI, including Alphabet (home of Google), Meta (Facebook), and Baidu in China, so smaller companies can build AI-based applications and services. 

AI growth is moving fast 

AI usage is growing swiftly in labs and companies globally. Elder says his company brings in “millions” annually for AI-related work. 

Market.us estimates that the global artificial intelligence market size was $129.28 billion in 2022, with more than 51 percent of revenues in North America—and growth is estimated to accelerate at a compound annual growth rate of 36.8 percent, to an estimated incremental revenue of more than $2.7 trillion by 2032. While a search for AI revenues in central Virginia or the state didn’t return results, a study by AI-driven website builder YACSS found Virginia to be the 10th most “AI-obsessed” state, based on Google keywords data (Massachusetts was first).

“Analytics, data science, and AI are on a continuum,” Elder says. “They all use experience of known situations and their outcome [data] to better determine actions to be taken for similar new cases. They are ideal for, for instance, finding people who are the lowest risk for repaying loans, or who could be the highest threat to national security.  Success marries the speed and accuracy of the computer with the people skills of creativity and understanding of the problem.”

Aiding accurate, swift analysis is UVA’s new School of Data Science. Commerce school alum Jaffray Woodriff, successful in hedge-fund analytics, gave the university $120 million to establish an entire school full of students, from undergraduates to Ph.D.s., looking toward careers in AI and other data analysis fields. 

Tobias Dengel, president of WillowTree, a TELUS International company with its headquarters here and more than 1,000 employees worldwide, says, “Over the next 24 months everything we do—from design to development—will be made more efficient using AI tools. Consumers will see this change as every app and website will become a virtual voice-based assistant. To order your favorite coffee or pizza, you’ll just open your Starbucks or Domino’s app and tell it what you want. The entire human/machine interface is about to change.” 

Some are wary of that predicted inevitability, however. Artist Rosamond Casey says AI artworks need to stay in the digital world: “Label it as AI art, set up a market for it, but call it what it is,” she says. “Keep it out of the physical world.” With AI making the art, “it appeals to emotion, but large areas of the composition fall apart. Maybe artists being artists will find a way to own AI and make it their tool, and we will all adapt.”

Eric Seaborg, a journalist and author, notes, “The articles I write are based on interviews with experts, and AI doesn’t seem close to being able to do that, so my little part of the world is safe for now.”

But as usage of AI grows, and many leverage its power, some experts’ confidence in its abilities to assume other tasks in society grows with it. Michael Freenor, WillowTree’s principal data scientist says, without hesitation, “I predict every shop will be using AI.”

Locals leverage AI 

Elder’s group approaches queries to learn, for example, about people with security clearances by looking for anomalous behaviors—their keystrokes, which doors they enter and exit, and so on. “The question is, ‘How do you create good features out of that vast sea of flowing information, so that you can summarize it in a way to make it clear?’” he says. The model shows only that a person has a certain probability of being risky, fraudulent, or not paying off loans. A model provides a probability (a number between 0 and 100, say), and it’s up to the end user to decide whether to act on the prediction.  

Other local businesses, like Astrea, also use AI. Its website describes an “artificial intelligence platform to combine cutting-edge technologies and analytics-ready satellite imagery,” dealing in geospatial data and tools to analyze the data at lower costs.  

Drug developer Ampel’s site notes that the company “brings their expertise in basic and translational research, clinical trial design, and bioinformatics together in a new way to develop scalable systems using AI and deep machine learning to improve patient outcomes.” Ampel expects its first product, LuGENE (a blood test that assesses disease state and drug options for lupus patients), to be out this year. ZielBio is also using AI to develop drugs, as is HemoShear Therapeutics. All three are based in Charlottesville.

Sheng Li, a professor in the UVA School of Data Science, primarily directs his AI research to improve trustworthiness. In the concept of machine learning, those in the field define trustworthiness from several angles: robustness, fairness, transparency, security, and interpretability. His team would like to investigate all of these topics, but for now it focuses on robustness and fairness.

One robustness project is fish recognition—gathering data for the U.S. Geological Survey. Researchers are recording unique patterns and markings that stay with individual fish over the years. The recognition data has robustness issues, however, because often the fish are not seen in winter, and by spring and summer they gain size. Such changes will make the model work worse if you only examine data from certain seasons. More frequent data will improve the project, which tracks fish to learn how populations are growing. If individual fish can be recognized, then researchers can monitor the health status of the fish, based on unusual skin patterns, Li says.

WillowTree has an active AI project group, including clients in health care, human resources, financial services, and agribusiness.

WillowTree’s Freenor says his most complex project to date involved a client dedicated to enabling data-driven efforts in diversity, equity, and inclusion. AI can drastically increase productivity across product development, so one assignment that typically takes six weeks was completed in two days. The final product entailed creating a smart database interface for HR professionals skilled in the DEI space but not necessarily at data analysis or engineering. With GPT, natural-language commands such as “What’s the gender pay gap at my company?” allowed users to search for patterns in the client’s own HR database on which the AI was trained. 

“It was the first major project we used GPT on,” says Freenor. “It’s the first time in my career that I got giddy with a piece of technology, honestly. It was very obvious. It was so fast and I had it performing in just a couple of hours, which was wild.”

Freenor cautions that with a large-language model like GPT, the first answer isn’t always the right answer, however. 

WillowTree found prompting and then re-prompting technology is a good technique, says Freenor. Adam Nemett, WillowTree’s director of brand and content strategy, explains that this kind of “prompt engineering” is vitally important. “If the technology is operating in a world of assumptions, drawing on the massive amount of public information it’s been trained on, it’s going to reflect whatever bias exists in its training.”

“For most use cases a company will want to license and train the AI independently, to make sure the application is analyzing a concrete set of data rather than billions of data points from all of human history. Then you can essentially engineer the prompt to refine itself,” Nemett says. “Just because this technology is powerful doesn’t mean it’s always correct the first time. You still need human experts building and training these models to ensure the privacy of the data and integrity of the system’s responses.” Nemett says WillowTree is well positioned to work on complex, thorny issues because of the breadth of its expertise, from the data scientists effectively wielding LLMs to the engineers and designers building voice-powered AI solutions to the social scientists in their research division staying abreast of the technology’s impact.

UVA’s Ji is working on a system that would make the human user responsible for concluding the correct answer. He wants a system to include three different characteristics for the user’s peace of mind: an answer, an explanation for the answer, and then the percentage prediction that an answer is information used to come to an answer.

Given all of the information, the human user needs to make an educated decision about whether the answer is truthful or whether it is misinformation. “The difficulty is that we have to construct a collaboration, working together with people who may have different views and backgrounds,” Ji says.

Risks of AI technology 

Kay Neeley, associate professor in the UVA School of Engineering and Applied Science, teaches a course called The Engineer, Ethics, and Professional Responsibility. Every student in the school must take one ethics course.

“One of the biggest problems is that AI is a very broad category of technical capability that can be used for lots of different things,” Neeley says. “We need to start by saying that generalizing about AI doesn’t make sense.” She calls for people to look at specific AI applications in the context of their use.   

“Scrupulous” is a word several interviewees used when talking about businesses that use AI. Businesses must be scrupulous or the information delivered will be unsatisfactory, false, or worse. There can be risk to the brand if the LLM doesn’t provide thorough information or provides incorrect information, or if someone can trick it to obtain information or intellectual property that should not be released. “There is risk to the brand and to those who receive its information, and any of those outcomes is bad from an organization’s perspective,” Freenor says.

Often, those who get the information hesitate to use it. Gartner, a technological consulting firm, predicted that “80 percent of analytics insights will not deliver business outcomes through 2022.” Elder says he is pleased that 90 percent of his clients do use the insights his team provides. “People naturally fear making decisions in a new way. They may not understand the model well enough, or just figure that no one gets fired for doing things the old way.”

ChatGPT, open and available to the public, is astonishing people with how quickly it can produce seemingly-sensible commentary on any subject. That it is public and free may be a real problem, in Elder’s view. “It lies brazenly. I wouldn’t make a business decision based on it,” he says. “It never says, ‘I don’t know.’  It’s often right, always wrong about something, and completely confident on everything.”

Elder challenges: “Ask it something you know a lot about. Like, ask what you have invented and how does it work? It’ll get some things right but then run on about your genius with say, a super-shredder or galvanizing rubber. It badly needs a validation mechanism.” He says he knows a local firm using the public version even now to craft marketing pitches to different types of customers.

Neeley agrees that ChatGPT needs to be used carefully. “There are some limited, humane purposes to which something like ChatGPT can be put,” she says. She gives the “very constructive” example of lower-skilled workers who performed at a higher level in the context of interacting with customers if they were assisted by a capability like ChatGPT.

“In an academic context, however, we don’t have students write essays because someone is going to buy the products,” Neeley says. “We have them write so they develop the capability. The point is the people who are developing or making money off of ChatGPT are not bearing the costs of reconfiguring the system of education, so that it still works reasonably well with this capability out there.” 

Students could cheat. Neeley bemoans the lack of accountability on the part of the AI developers, while back at UVA, “we are spending a lot of time figuring out how we are going to deal with this capability. Those are costs that we are bearing.” 

One of the biggest risks Neeley sees, however, is that people treat the continued development and use of this capability as inevitable, as if this is something that is going to happen, in which case the question is how we adapt to it. 

“The discourse of inevitability is inimical to ethical sensitivity and awareness,” Neeley says. “Ethics is not about what we can do, it is about what we should do.” 

She subs in “morphine” for AI. “None of us wants to live in a world without morphine. We don’t give morphine to students and say, ‘This can be used for good and bad things, and we hope you make good decisions.’” 

With morphine, we control the outcomes. With AI, “we know we cannot control the outcome, but we know the stakes are high enough that we are going to try to control it, and the role that choice plays,” asserts Neeley. “If we believe we have choice, then we do.”

On May 10, the first class of students since 2019 will graduate from the Resilience Education program at Fluvanna Women’s Correctional Center. The graduation also marks the first time program participants will receive UVA course credit for their studies.

Resilience Education is a business education program designed to provide inmates with the tools they need to succeed post-release. With more than 650,000 people released from American prisons every year, Resilience Education aims to combat the primary drivers of recidivism—unemployment and social ties—through its classes taught by MBA students. While the program was started at Darden more than a decade ago, it has changed immensely since its conception with an entrepreneurship-focused curriculum.

Although entrepreneurship is still a major part of the Resilience Education curriculum, the courses have shifted to better meet the needs of its participants. “We started to realize that it wasn’t just going and getting a job … or starting a business,” says co-founder and Executive Director Tierney Fairchild. “A lot of people are incarcerated because of financial challenges, [because] of poverty.” As a result, financial capability and business foundation courses have been incorporated to prepare students for life after incarceration.

“It’s taught me to never let your past define your future,” says Resilience Education graduate Cereatha Howard. Howard has stayed involved with the program since her own release from FWCC in 2014, and is now a mentor for other formerly incarcerated people. “When you get out … you don’t know where to go … or where to start. And having people like us … [that have been] home and doing well … I tend to know how to help people look for resources.”

To help navigate life after incarceration, the Resilience Education program has expanded its network of post-release support through its Resilient Professional Community. While the network is currently in beta, the RPC provides a professional support network for Resilience Education graduates and other formerly incarcerated individuals. 

“We actually can reconnect with them, and help them build a connection, both with each other and with trusted allies that want to support them in their journey to … flourishing in their communities,” says Fairchild about the RPC. 

For graduates and volunteer teachers alike, both the Resilience Education program and the RPC network have been impactful. “Resilience Education is actually one of the reasons I chose Darden as a business school,” says Jackie Temkin, who volunteered regularly with the program during her time at Darden, and is now a mentor in the RPC network.

“[Resilience Education] has completely changed the way I think about … hiring. I think employers have a lot of trouble finding and retaining employees, but a lot of the time … it’s because they just have a really bad hiring process,” Temkin says. As the owner of Afton Design Co.—a local graphic design studio—Temkin has adopted a hiring process where she seeks to “eliminate unnecessary barriers … and requirements” that are often present in the recruitment process.

While Resilience Education had to pause a significant portion of its program during the pandemic, it is once again up and thriving. Both the Wharton School and Columbia Business School now partner with the program, expanding its impact significantly.

Beyond anecdotal success, Resilience Education has data that shows the positive impact of its program. Upwards of 1,000 incarcerated graduates have completed the program, which boasts a 7 percent recidivism rate. Compared to a national rate of 68 percent of releasees being rearrested within three years, this number is exceptionally low.

Fairchild attributes much of the program’s success to its community-driven approach.  “This professional community is a place, it’s by and for our individuals. We have a community advisory board which started out as our design team, these are all formerly incarcerated graduates … they know what they need,” she says.

Looking to the future of Resilience Education and its professional network, Fairchild says, “We believe that what [we are] going to be doing is taking this more nationally.”

For now, Resilience Education is thriving locally. Twenty-seven students will be honored during the Fluvanna Women’s Correctional Center graduation ceremony, and preparing to enter the next stage of their post-release planning.

Whole Woman’s Health sues FDA

Whole Woman’s Health Alliance has filed a lawsuit against the Federal Drug Administration.

The suit follows a wave of recent rulings over the drug mifepristone, which is commonly used for medication abortions. While the U.S. Supreme Court has already blocked a Texas federal court ruling banning the drug, WWHA is suing the FDA in an effort to further protect access to mifepristone. 

Plaintiffs in the case include Whole Woman’s Health of Charlottes­ville, WWH of Alexandria, WWH Virtual Care, two providers from Montana, and one provider from Kansas. Although there has been a wealth of abortion-related cases since the overturn of Roe v. Wade last year, WWHA v. FDA is the first time an abortion provider has sued the FDA.

In a press release announcing the lawsuit, WWH President and CEO Amy Hagstrom Miller said, “We believe in the safety and efficacy of mifepristone. The ability for our Virginia patients to receive abortion care on their own terms, whether in a clinic or at home, is paramount to their bodily autonomy and reproductive freedom.” She concluded, “There is no medically accurate reason to withdraw access to mifepristone for anyone in this country.”

Early voting begins

Voters can now cast their ballots early in person for the June 2023 primary elections, which include local races and House of Delegates and state Senate seats.

For Charlottesville and Albemarle residents, the ballot includes Democratic primaries for the 11th District Virginia Senate seat, the 54th and 55th District House of Delegates seats, and (in the city) City Council. 

To vote early in person, city residents should visit the City Hall Annex at 120 Seventh St. NE, Room 142,  Monday through Friday from 8:30am to 4:30pm. In Albemarle County, voters can go to the County Office Building at 1600 Fifth St., Monday through Friday from 8:30am to 5pm.

Fluvanna and Nelson counties also have a Democratic primary this June, in addition to local elections. Although Greene County does not have a primary election for either state legislature, there will be a Board of Supervisors primary. The addresses and hours of operation for each county are: Fluvanna County: 265 Turkeysag Trl., Suite 115, Palmyra, Monday through Friday from 8:30am to 5pm; Greene County: 32 Standard St., Stanardsville, Monday through Friday from 8:30am to noon and 1 to 5pm; Nelson County: 571 Front St., Lovingston Monday through Friday from 9am to 5pm.

Limited Saturday voting will occur closer to the primaries, which are on Tuesday, June 20.

In brief

Teens arrested

Albemarle County police have arrested two local teenagers for the April 9 carjacking of a Lyft in Crozet. Despite initial reports describing the suspects as 16 to 17 years old, the juveniles arrested are 13 and 14. The arrest is the latest in a wave of crime committed by extremely young individuals in the Greater Charlottesville Area.

PCOB meeting

New Executive Director Inez Gonzalez will meet with the Police Civilian Oversight Board for the first time on May 11. The meeting will be held virtually at 6:30pm as normally scheduled, with an opportunity for public comment after Gonzalez’ introduction. Gonzalez officially began work on May 1.

Cyberattack funds

Sen. Mark Warner announced that $1,820,000 of federal funding will be awarded to Virginia universities. The funding will be divided between the University of Virginia and Norfolk State University to research AI approaches to cybersecurity. UVA has been granted $845,000 for the project.

Cop decertified

A former Massachusetts police officer has been decertified due to his alleged involvement in planning the 2017 Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville. The ex-officer—John Donnelly—had previously been suspended from his position in fall of 2022, but quickly resigned before an investigation could be completed. Donnelly is the first officer to be decertified by the Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission.