Tech leaders unveil AI innovations at GVSU's Tech Week event

AI is also playing a major part in helping younger generations learn through Michael Hyacinthe's work. Hyacinthe, founder and CEO of Wimage and a lead instructor at GVSU's Michigan Veteran Entrepreneur Lab, showed how he is integrating AI with his PBS children's show, "Wimee's Words."

By utilizing AI with the show's lead character, a robot puppet named Wimee, Hyacinthe said he's using creativity to facilitate learning. Children can chat and interact with Wimee, thanks to his AI functionality.

To bring AI Wimee to life on the screen, Hyacinthe said, "we wanted to program Wimee with heart before hardware."

"We all know that AI typically learns from the data you feed it," Hyacinthe said. "However, Wimee had a predetermined personality that we had to teach AI and focus on creating an emotional connection with children."

College of Computing Dean Marouane Kessentini said hearing the visionary applications of AI from the speakers will help shape the college's curriculum.

"We want to move from having professors thinking about what should be best in terms of training or research to actually hearing about your relevant problems," Kessentini said. "We were hearing today about problems that are very important for society, and actually, our job is to try to innovate with you."