UAU: AI FOR ALL

Just two months ago Universal AI University, received the green signal from University Grant Commission and Maharashtra Government. With special focus on artificial intelligence and its uses in different fields, its maiden academic year starts this August. Tarun Anand, chancellor and founder of Universal AI University, spoke to Careers360 on the AI revolution and how it's changing education in India.

- Sheena Sachdeva

Q. Why a standalone AI university?

A. In 2018, I was attending a Quacquarelli Symonds [QS] conference and I heard professors from Stanford and MIT discussing their universities working on some crazy and innovative things on AI and how it's dramatically changing businesses. I was fascinated with the potential of machines and how they can do mundane tasks.

At that point, artificial intelligence [AI] was not as popular as it is now. Initially, we were a business school that wanted to go to a multidisciplinary world. But later, we thought of a university focussed on AI because it could transform society, businesses and professions. Further, through the years, we have witnessed the transformation. We had yet to hear of ChatGPT or large language models back then. But now these are commonly used.

Q. How innovative will teaching be at the university?

A. The vision is to create leaders who will be ethical and responsible and contribute to society. As AI is an integral part, we have thought about how we can transform the lives of our students and careers. Therefore, in the first year students will have foundational learning on AI, machine learning [ML], internet of things [IoT] and virtual reality [VR] or augmented reality [AR] and mixed reality [MR]. We want to equip students with the potential of these technologies. And this goes for every field, whether psychology, commerce, or science. These subjects are important because these technologies will transform how we live.

We foresee that only a few students will be excited to learn and others might want to know the basics of these technologies. In the third year, all students have to work on Al's impact on social sciences and liberal arts including implications for and applications in these fields.