The father of the virtual assistant has a message for Illinois State University students about artificial intelligence: embrace it and learn how to use it.
Kevin Surace, an AI pioneer and futurist entrepreneur, will host a talk,"Win with AI Today: Practical Tips for Work, School, and Home," as part of ISU's presidential speaker series at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 4, at the Brown Ballroom of Bone Student Center.
Surace said most students are “playing” with AI, but many are not using generative AI and large language models [LLMs] correctly and some students are using the technology to cheat.
“You start to learn all of these things you can do and it is game-changing and when you as a student go get work, you want to be the game-changer and not the lagger,” Surace said in an interview on WGLT’s Sound Ideas.
But Surace cautioned that students who simply use AI to cheat actually diminish their critical-thinking capacity, citing a recent MIT study. He likened AI skeptics to those who worried that software programs with calculation functions, such as Microsoft Excel, would cause basic math skills to erode.
“These tools are here to stay, just like Excel is here to stay. You really want to embed yourself, not just in one LLM. I literally use 40 tools,” Surace said.
He said AI hallucinations are rare — only about 1% from the latest model from Open AI [GPT-5] — and can generally be avoided by asking more detailed questions.
“In terms of wrong answers, humans were worse, like 10 times worse,” he quipped.
Jobs needed
Surace said AI may lead to some jobs being eliminated, though he predicted it will be less of a problem in the U.S. because many employers are looking for ways to increase productivity with fewer workers to hire.
The workforce, he said, has been shrinking by falling birth rates, an aging workforce retiring, and a system that makes it harder for immigrants to get to — and stay in — the U.S.
“If we [want] to double the revenue of our company, everyone is going to have to be twice as productive, and there are no more people to hire in terms of raw numbers because they are retiring faster than they are coming into the workforce. Your headcount must get smaller and you still have to grow; that’s where AI helps us,” Surace said.
AI deepfakes
Surace acknowledged AI makes it easier for anyone to create content that would be mistaken for something real, which can be problematic in political and other types of advertising. Still, he said deepfakes are nothing new, noting that Adobe PhotoShop has been around for several decades.
“I already assume that any video I see is probably not real,” Surace said. “People will figure this out. Some of this is going to be funny. You are not going to believe most of what you see. Without real reporters checking and doing the homework.”
Energy drain
AI is expected to be a substantial drain on energy sources. Surace said nuclear power appears to be the most likely solution given its capacity for growth.
“Nuclear modular reactors are the thing that everyone is talking about in tech,” he said. "It's very safe and it’s a great technology. Is it enough? It’s going to have to be enough.”
Surace said it’s unfair for energy customers to face higher rates when data centers open nearby.
Stock market
Leading AI companies have helped fuel the recent growth in the stock market, and Surace said he regrets not jumping on OpenAI early — long before it reached a $500 billion valuation as a privately-held company.
“I thought it was a bubble,” he said, adding it’s hard to say if the technology has reached peak price before its full potential has been realized.
“It's hard to imagine today that you are buying low [now],” Surace said.
