Rye Country Day School welcomed Artificial Intelligence Scientist Aron Szanto to campus on Friday, February 24, to share his perspective and insights on the rapid growth of artificial intelligence and the emergence of ChatGPT and DALL-E 2​​—systems that can create realistic images, detailed text, and art from natural language descriptions or prompts.

Hosted by the RCDS Technology Committee, Mr. Szanto led presentations for Middle Schoolers, Upper Schoolers, faculty, and staff defining generative artificial intelligence, explaining how AI systems learn, and illustrating the ways in which programs like DALL-E are changing the future of AI. Mr. Szanto’s visit also included meeting with employees and the Technology Committee, a fifth-grade computer science class, and an  AP Computer Science class.  Through current and relevant examples, Mr. Szanto invited audiences to consider questions of authorship and ethics raised by AI.

Director of Academic Technology Katie O’Shaughnessey shared, “Students and employees left with more questions than answers, which is fitting given the topic. Mr. Szanto’s thoughtful presentation will help all of us in our thinking about important ethical issues as AI continues its presence in learning and daily life.” This expert speaker visit was part of a  the RCDS Technology Committee’s ongoing series on AI and education.

Aron Szanto is Head of the AI research division at Razor, Inc. His team builds AI models aimed at discovering new therapies for diseases like cancer. His research uses AI to analyze data from cells and genes to identify microscopic indicators of disease that would otherwise be impossible to find by humans alone. Prior to Razor, Inc., Mr. Szanto was Head of the  Natural Language Processing Division at Kensho Technologies in New York City, where his team developed AI techniques to analyze written and spoken language to identify and stop disinformation and fake news.  

Thank you, Mr.Szanto, for a thought-provoking presentation on this important and evolving topic.