Long Beach City College needs a definitive and comprehensive AI policy as the technology continues to advance.
As of yet, LBCC has not shown to be outwardly against AI and in fact has provided resources for instructors on how to tackle AI in the classroom.
The Online Education Committee, OEC, provided the resource in 2023 and even noted that AI can be beneficial inside classrooms and linked to several articles showing real world examples and inputs from professionals.
The school should continue taking an open but cautious approach towards AI and LBCC could start implementing AI to help streamline services at school.
LBCC’s website already implements an AI chatbot, but its functionality is limited as it only appears on admissions and aids but not in other sections of the site.
Using AI should be taken a step further by incorporating some of these technologies into the college’s library database search.
It can assist in acquiring information through the digital library, by using machine learning AI it can curate and streamline results for students looking for relevant sources.
AI can also provide help with financial services and class registration by creating plans and guidelines that are tailored to individual students based on their input.
Like any tool, AI needs more regulation, and by implementing AI on a larger scale, it forces institutions to think about where and how to properly regulate these systems.
However, implementing AI would not be so straightforward, and there will be pros and cons in major applications.
The immediate pros would be the ease of access to information and school services.
On the other hand, building and maintaining AI for LBCC’s use would be costly.
According to Walturn, a consultant agency that specializes in AI, creating a powerful enough AI from the ground up would range from $100,000 all the way up to $500,000.
This estimate is for an AI that is mid-sized and used for more advanced features and does not take into account the additional costs of maintaining and updating the AI system over the long term.
Regardless of the costs, the use of AI at LBCC would be beneficial for students.
Now more than ever, there needs to be a mode of thought regarding AI going forward and how that integration will look.
Implementing these measures despite some of the costs will ultimately help take off some of the burdens of work for students and staff on campus.