Interim Dean Ken Fleischmann was recently featured in a KXAN news story examining Austin's emergence as a national hub for artificial intelligence and the growing tension between innovation and responsible development.
In the piece, Fleischmann, who serves as founding chair of UT Austin's Good Systems research initiative, spoke to the urgency of thinking proactively about AI's societal implications.
"It's critical with how quickly AI is advancing every day. We have to be able to look several steps ahead," Fleischmann told KXAN. "We can't just think about the problems of the present; we have to think about the problems of the future."
He also emphasized the importance of building the kind of future Texans and Americans actually want: "It's important that we maintain our competitiveness in AI here in Texas and across the US, but that we're doing it in a responsible manner — that we're thinking about the implications that AI is going to have for society, that we're building the society that we want to live in using AI."
The story highlights Austin's 61 data centers, a surge of AI startups, and the role UT Austin plays in producing the talent and research shaping that landscape.