Welcome to vibe coding and pumping the brakes
Carolina’s first AI for Public Good Conference offered cutting edge views on the future of artificial intelligence to nearly 600 attendees.
For eight hours, UNC-Chapel Hill pushed pause and gave the public a chance to catch up on the world’s fastest moving technology, artificial intelligence.
“We have always seen our role as understanding the latest technology and incorporating it into our service to the people of North Carolina,” said Chancellor Lee H. Roberts. “And we have not just the opportunity but I would argue the obligation to do that once again, with this transformative new technology.”
The first AI for Public Good Conference on April 13 provided a rare opportunity to hear from representatives from government and industry heavy hitters like OpenAI and Anthropic as well as Carolina’s own experts. Nearly 600 people registered to find out what they had to say about how this technology can benefit the public.
“We have always seen our role as understanding the latest technology and incorporating it into our service to the people of North Carolina,” said Chancellor Lee H. Roberts. (Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill)
They heard how people in business and government are already vibe coding (telling AI what to do instead of using computer code) to solve problems. Conference co-chair Marina Carreker ’03 of Galleon Strategies told of a security guard who created a tool with ChatGPT that allows employees at his company to disable disruptive alarms. By video, Gov. Josh Stein shared how state government agencies like the Division of Motor Vehicles are using AI to improve service. State Treasurer Brad Briner talked about how AI is helping his office “see through the fog of too much data” to be able to help municipalities avoid financial woes that have hurt others. U.S. Rep. Valerie Foushee praised AI’s “tremendous promise,” while recommending “meaningful guardrails.”
Conference co-chair Penny Gordon-Larsen, vice chancellor for research, introduced a whole panel of Carolina researchers using AI in drug discovery, precision medicine, risk management and platforms that accelerate research across disciplines.
“It’s a real transformation in the speed, the scope, the scale of the work that we do,” Gordon- Larsen said. “And not just the work that we do, but how we can get it back into the hands of the public, so that our work has impact.”
A look inside AI
Attendees also got a rare glimpse into the AI industry itself through Carreker’s conversation with Ronnie Chatterji, chief economist at OpenAI, and Thompson Paine ’05, head of geopolitics at Anthropic.
Paine spoke of the “awesome responsibility” these companies have “to explain or help the world anticipate what is coming” and help prepare others for what’s next.
“I think it matters who is leading in this technology. And if you extend that lead, like it’s your breathing room, right?” said Paine, whose company just released the Mythos cybersecurity product. “You might pump on the gas now so that we have the privilege of pumping on the brakes later.”
As an economist, Chatterji talked about how rural entrepreneurs make AI a silent tech partner and how job seekers use it to decrease “information asymmetry.” But he was also candid about how he wanted his children to use AI. “I don’t want them to outsource critical thinking to an AI chatbot.”
“Conversations about AI at this moment in time are almost more about people than technology,” Magnus Egerstedt, executive vice chancellor and provost said. (Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill)
Deeper dives and closing
In the afternoon, students participated in a practice hackathon to apply large language models to clinical data, making use of RENCI’s AI Sandbox on HeLx, while other attendees went to breakout sessions on ethics, geopolitics, arts, privacy, innovations and precision medicine. One session focused on Carolina innovations in creating trustworthy AI agents, data visualization and AI-guided robots for surgery.
A panel on the environment included a researcher who wants to hold AI companies accountable for the energy and water they use. “Most Americans don’t realize that AI actually consumes energy and has a carbon footprint,” said Angel Hsu, director of the Data-Driven EnviroLab, which produced ChatNetZero to answer the public’s climate-related questions.
The final panel reconvened attendees for a discussion on culture change. Greg Kuhnen, system director at UNC Health, shared a success story about using AI to schedule work at infusion centers more effectively, allowing staff to serve more patients without being overworked.
Students participated in a practice hackathon to apply large language models to clinical data. (Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill)
“When we were able to prove this, with results that matter to those frontline, battle-hardened folks, everybody else wanted it,” Kuhnen said.
The sentiment was seconded by I-Sah Hsieh, deputy secretary for AI and policy at the state’s new Department of Information and Technology. “AI moves at the speed of trust, right? Without trust, no matter how good your algorithm, you’re just not going to get far.”
In closing the AI conference, Magnus Egerstedt, executive vice chancellor and provost, shared takeaways from the sessions at the Friday Center and the conversations in between.
“It’s clear that things were happening that this meeting actually triggered,” he said. “Conversations about AI at this moment in time are almost more about people than technology. And I thought that was fascinating, right?”
