Tallahassee State College now has 13,000 students, with enrollment growing every semester for the past nine. TSC President Jim Murdaugh says he believes that’s because the school offers so many career options – including a new degree focused on artificial intelligence.
Murdaugh says he believes learning AI will help his students develop an entrepreneurial mindset and skills desirable in a future workplace.
“I don’t believe AI is going to replace people in the workforce," he said. "But I do believe people who know AI might replace people who don’t know AI in the workforce. It has so much potential.”
Murdaugh says he’s not overly concerned about the possibility of students using A-I to cheat.
“There are concerns about ethics. There are concerns on the part of faculty about cheating. There are a lot of things that need to be addressed in AI," he said. "I have a very practical approach to this whole thing, meaning AI is here, and it is not going anywhere, and it’s not going away. And so, what I’ve asked our folks to do is embrace AI.”
He says not everyone in the workforce needs to memorize everything they've been taught.
“Life is an open-book test," he said. "And so, if we’re going to prepare people for life, if we’re going to prepare people to go into the workforce, most of the people we’re going to prepare to go into the workforce need to understand how to find and critically analyze information – not how to recall it off the top of their head.”
Murdaugh says TSC is also working with employers to experiment with AI and learn from it. And the school is working with students to make sure they’re familiar with the technology by the time they leave.
