Jacob Edwards
Connector Contributor
In today’s world, to say that A.I and language learning models are a hot topic is a bit of an understatement. It’s safe that when a group of students at UMass Lowell came together to create a society based not just on A.I, but integrating it into many different disciplines within the university, there was a bit of backlash. Though the Artificial Intelligence Multi-disciplinary society as it is formally called, says that their goal is to help integrate A.I. into the various disciplines and majors across UMass. But they do not feel that A.I should be involved in all the majors offered. When asked about the issue, A.I.M.S’s Director of Technology, Harry Joshi said that their organization is actually trying to find representatives in the arts and music majors to keep A.I out of those areas of study.
Despite this, A.I in the arts is not the only issue caused by its use. A.I. models like “Chat-GPT” and “Claude” require large sources of power and equally large spaces for processing power and data storage. Most of the large corporations who own and operate these A.I. models create large data centers to process and store that data. Which not only has contributed to the expanding RAM chip shortage in the consumer market but also use and pollute large volumes of clean water for their cooling systems. This has inevitably led to major environmental damages as well as the space they take in both rural and urban areas. When asked about how they plan to address the environmental impacts of A.I. Joshi said that they do have a project known as Coal2Core, which uses A.I. to evaluate retired coal plants and see if they can be repurposed for use in nuclear power or for new data centers. However, how they plan to address the environmental impacts of current data centers is still unknown.
Though Coal2Core is not the only project the A.I.M.S has in the works. As a part of “Hackachusetts” 2026, they created “ShortCut”, which is a sfotware that assists students in navigating UMass Lowell by using both Bluetooth signals along indoor mapping. They also have created AIMFlow. A free open-source speech to text program that runs on one’s computer to help assist in writing and or using applications. On top of that, A.I.M. has partnered with the UML chapter of Nurses without Borders, to use their expertise with A.I. to support the organization in its medical endeavors. It seems that A.I.M’s main mission with all their projects is to use A.I. as a tool to help and assist not just the students of UMass Lowell but also people who are in need of it. But as a student led organization, their outreach only stretches so far. Especially with major companies such as Google and Meta who still use A.I. in more unethical ways with no regard for the people they may hurt. Which is why this club had been adamant in getting more students involved in their mission. And want to make sure that A.I. is an ethical tool used to help the students of UMass Lowell in whatever major they are a part of.
