Toyama: Demand for artificial intelligence is creating an “AI gold rush” at universities

Open AI’s release of ChatGPT in 2022 signaled a new wave of excitement over artificial intelligence. Since its release, universities are racing to catch up with student interest in the field, ramping up faculty hires, classes and institutions dedicated to the field. 

University of Michigan School of Information professor Kentaro Toyama, an expert on AI technology, says universities “can’t hire faculty fast enough” to meet this sudden demand. Inside Higher Ed interviewed Toyama about the challenge of retaining new faculty in this field among ongoing competition. 

“In the short term, a lot of these places that are saying they’re going to hire 90 faculty are going to struggle to fill those 90 with people who really have the ability to teach those classes,” says Toyama. 

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Read “Colleges Race to Hire and Build Amid AI ‘Gold Rush’” at Inside Higher Ed. 

Learn more about Kentaro Toyama’s research on AI and human-computer interaction by visiting his UMSI