How UVA uses AI in education, health data

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - Technologies known as ‘Artificial Intelligence’ can be useful tools for guiding workers, according to two experts, but they are not good enough to solely rely on to create original work or make important decisions.

At the University of Virginia, they both have figured out ways of carefully using AI technologies to help with their work.

“We can be fearful, and I appreciate and I understand why the anxiety exists,” UVA Business Professor Yael Grushka-Cockayne said. “It will evolve to the point where we will become much more efficient and much more productive.”

Grushka-Cockayne studies artificial intelligence. And she uses generative AI like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot to help her with her workload and lesson plans.

“I use it to spark my imagination in different directions, and then I’ll go and do what I always do, which is a deeper dive, and be more thorough and kind of start from scratch by myself,” Cockayne said.

Depending on the course, students can use programs like these for class too. As long as they don’t use it to do their work for them, per UVA’s Honor Code.

Cockayne says it can help students summarize material and pinpoint sources. She expects students to keep a reference list of how they use AI technologies.

“Along the way, they say, ‘I leveraged generative AI, this was the prompt that I put in, this was the output that I got and this is how I used it,’” Cockayne said.

UVA researchers use their own AI programs in the medical field. Just like Cockayne, they use it as a tool to guide them.

“We use it as decision support, rather than making decisions,” UVA Health Data Sciences Director John Michael said. “There’s always a person in the loop making that decision, interpreting the data, and implementing because that’s the check that we’re putting in place.”

Michael has been using AI since 1992 and says healthcare has been slow to adapt to it.

He believes it will become the norm and will do wonders for the health department as it advances.

“Making healthcare more affordable, making it more effective, making it more efficient,” Michael said. “That’s where I think AI can benefit healthcare."

Professor Cockayne says UVA is not ahead of the curve, but they’re keeping pace with the competition.

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