The Vice-Chancellor of the Delta State University (DELSU), Abrakq, Prof. Andy Egwunyenga, has called for the inclusion of Artificial Intelligence, AI, as a course in tertiary institutions to advance learning, research and innovation.

Egwunyenga stated this during the Faculty of Arts 6th Biennial International Conference titled :” Artificial Intelligence (AI), The Humanities, and Interdisciplinary Research: Challenges and Prospects”.

The VC noted that AI was a transformatory technology to solve some of the existential challenges facing humanity and to make life better.

He said inter-alia :” We don’t have a choice as AI has become a pivotal part of development, particularly in tertiary education. We must understand that AI is just a technological tool to make life better, bring greater innovation, make things more result oriented, and not to replace knowledge itself.”

In his welcome address, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Prof. Nelson Edewor, thanked the VC for his continued support to the faculty and expressed optimism that the research output of the conference would enhance humanity’s living conditions.

The keynote address presenter, a former Vice-Chancellor of Admiralty University, Ibusa, Prof. Leonard Shilgba, listed some of the uses of AI to include plagiarism detector, research aid to researchers, writing of abstract and references among others.

He however, expressed deep fears that many jobs such as copy editing, data analysis and other jobs would be endangered, as AI would do most of these jobs. As a way out, he suggested that “ We should look for skills we can acquire now that AI has not acquired so that we can remain relevant in the scheme of things.”

On his part, the lead paper presenter, Prof. Cyrille Dalex Kouassi, argued that Nigeria by extension Africa was not mature enough for Artificial Intelligence, noting that Africa should rather concern itself with surmounting the challenges of bad governance, kidnapping, epileptic power supply, and terrorism.

The highlight of the event was the decoration of the VC with the medal of “Grand Fellow” of the faculty of Arts and award of excellence, drama presentation, musical rendition amongst others.