CARY, N.C. (WTVD) — The Wake County Board of Education held the first in a series of meetings to discuss the development of the district’s AI policy.

Board members learned about a number of topics related to AI, including how AI is being used now and the potential risks associated with the use of the growing software.

WCPSS Superintendent Dr. Robert Taylor said the district wanted board members to be well-informed now before developing a district-wide policy.

“The one thing I wanted to make sure is that we didn’t create a situation where we restrict something that is going to be a part of society, that our students are going to be responsible for learning that our teachers are going to be responsible for doing so,” he said.

A team from Amazon Web Services, or AWS, gave the board an informational presentation on AI.

District staff say there is no timeline for the adoption of the policy right now.

AI could be a major tool for the district, with the board saying it could help with personalized learning plans.

Still, some board members expressed concerns on how to teach students to use AI responsibly.

“I think the biggest concern that everyone has is academic integrity and honesty, things that can be used with AI to give false narratives, false pictures,” said Dr. Taylor.

Mikaya Thurmond is an AI expert and lecturer. She says the district needs to consider including AI training for teachers and develop rules governing students’ AI usage for their policy framework.

“If anyone believes that students are not using AI to get to conclusions and to turn in homework, at this point, they’re just not being honest about it,” she said.

For starters, she says students should credit AI when used on assignments and show their chat history with AI programs.

“That tells me you’re at least doing the critical thinking part,” said Thurmond. “And then there should be some assignments that no eye is allowed for and some where it is integrated. But I think that there has to be a mixture once educators know how to use it themselves.”

Something the superintendent and Thurmond agree on is parental involvement.

They both say parents should be having conversations now with their children about appropriate conversations to have with AI.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — The enthusiasm coming from Dr. Brent Harrison was jumping through the screen.

“I am very excited,” he said, as we discussed a big development that recently happened on the University of Kentucky campus.

Last week, the school’s Board of Trustees approved the state’s first Artificial Intelligence major, which will offer a Bachelor of Science degree. Some hurdles remain, as approval is still needed from the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

“This is something our department chair, Zongming Fei, was in favor of,” Harrison explained. “He said, ‘We have to do this; we see the desire from our students; we see the way the job market is going.'”

Artificial Intelligence is the future, according to those who’ve grasped the technology and believe in its impact and benefits. Dr. Harrison, who said the curriculum is already in place for a potential launch in the fall of 2026, says it’ll cover all aspects of the concentration.

“Pretty much anything we’re doing with AI is having that ethics component. Dr. Judy Goldsmith, one of my colleagues here, was very adamant that no matter what we’re doing, the students have to be aware of the potential pitfalls and other issues that come up when using AI,” Dr. Harrison said.

Currently, the university offers a certificate in AI training, which is useful for those who might only need some components, but by offering it as a major course of study, Dr. Harrison believes doors will be opened to its graduates like never before. It’s Computer Science on steroids, for lack of a better term.

“This is the kind of degree you could go out and be a software developer, but you would be more practiced in using these AI tools to make yourself more efficient. You could also go into things like data analytics. And, I’ll go ahead and say it, you could go into game design, game development,” Dr. Harrison said.

He also noted that the interest is much higher than he initially thought it would be. No one has (or can) declare AI as their major right now, but he anticipates many will. And he’s expecting some students to either switch majors or add AI to complete a double major program of study.

“I think the interest is there, and I think we’re going to see that, but I do expect the enrollment to pick up over 2 or 3 years,” he predicted, again pending the approval of the state’s CPE and SACS.

Some of the biggest US technology companies have pledged billions of pounds of investment to turbocharge Britain’s artificial intelligence (AI) industry, as the two countries announce a landmark technology deal.

Nvidia, Microsoft, Open AI and Google made a flurry of announcements to coincide with President Trump‘s state visit to the UK.

They include plans to build data centres and invest in AI research and engineering.

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Sir Keir Starmer described the agreement, which both leaders will sign over the coming days, as “a generational step change” in Britain’s relationship with the US.

The deal will see both countries cooperate on AI, quantum computing and nuclear energy, with investment in modular reactors revealed earlier this week.

The prime minister said it was “shaping the futures of millions of people on both sides of the Atlantic, and delivering growth, security and opportunity up and down the country”.

The government said the deal would deliver thousands of jobs, with a new AI Growth Zone in the North East of England earmarked for 5,000 jobs.

The region will host a new data centre developed in partnership with ChatGPT developer OpenAI, the US chip giant Nvidia and the British data centre company Nscale. The UK government will supply energy for the project, which will be based in Blyth.

Jensen Huang, chief executive of Nvidia, who has previously drawn attention to Britain’s inadequate levels of digital infrastructure, said: “Today marks a historic chapter in US-United Kingdom technology collaboration.

“We are at the Big Bang of the AI era – and the United Kingdom stands in a Goldilocks position, where world-class talent, research and industry converge.”

The Blyth data centre is part of Stargate, Open AI’s infrastructure project to build large data centres across the US.

The company has also developed sites in Norway and the UAE. Nvidia, which provides the graphic processing chips (GPUs), expects to generate $20bn (£14.6bn) by the end of this year from “sovereign” deals with national governments over the coming years.

Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive, said: “The UK has been a longstanding pioneer of AI, and is now home to world-class researchers, millions of ChatGPT users and a government that quickly recognised the potential of this technology.

“Stargate UK builds on this foundation to help accelerate scientific breakthroughs, improve productivity, and drive economic growth.”

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Microsoft also pledged £22bn, its largest ever investment in the UK, to expand data centres and construct the country’s largest AI supercomputer.

Meanwhile, Google owner Alphabet pledged £5bn to expand its data centres in Hertfordshire and fund its London-based subsidiary DeepMind, which uses AI to power cutting edge scientific research. The company was founded in Britain and acquired by Google in 2014.

Other investments include £1.5bn from AI cloud computing company CoreWeave and £1.4bn from Salesforce.