Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - Anyone on the University of Montana campus and the Missoula community are invited to participate in the ‘AI Playdate’, coming up on Thursday, December 5.

I spoke to UM’s Director of Strategic Communications Dave Kuntz about the event intended to expose the public to ‘generative artificial intelligence’ and the role it might play in local education.

UM Presents an Artificial Intelligence 'Play Date' on December 5

“For a few years now, President Seth Bodnar here at UM has really pushed our campus to try to identify the ways in which artificial intelligence can enhance the educational experience here at U M, but also for us to better understand the risks and threats that this new technology presents to our society as we're training the next generation of Montana's workforce,” began Kuntz.

Kuntz provided more details on the event to be held in the Phyllis J. Washington College of Education on campus.

Students Educators and Community Members are All Invited to Attend

“On Thursday, December 5, here at the UM campus, we are inviting students and educators community members to attend an event to learn more about the role of artificial intelligence AI in the classrooms, and also to share their experiences with this new technology,” he said. “Ultimately, the goal of this event is just to begin more dialogs between our K-12 schools, our universities, and our business leaders, so we can help stay one step ahead of this technology and really better understand how we can utilize AI in the classroom and beyond.”

Kuntz said there are two tracks of interest with the event.

“I believe we're tackling this in two ways,” he said.  “One is that we still have a responsibility to our students to empower them with the core competencies that you need to succeed in the workplace and have a successful life, the ability to communicate, to work as part of a team, to answer challenging, unprompted problems, the things that we all face each day, and that's never going away, and we incorporate those principles into all of our academic programming.”

Kuntz Said President Bodnar Believes AI Will be Integral to Education

Kuntz said President Bodnar strongly believes that AI will be an integral part of the future of education.

“We're really excited because it does provide a new frontier to be able to gather and distill information and learn,” he said. “We have a lot of researchers here on our campus who are really looking at the use of AI, how powerful it can be, how believable it can be, and its role in society going forward; whether that's in the health services, in education, if it's in the business world. So we have expert faculty who are exploring that every day and passing that knowledge down to their students.”

The event is free and open to the public and will be held on Thursday, December 5 at the ALI Auditorium on the UM campus.

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