John Behrens
Office of Digital Strategy, College of Arts & Letters; Idzik Computing and Digital Technologies Program
Director, Office of Digital Strategy in the College of Arts & Letters; Director, Idzik Computing & Digital Technologies Program; Professor of the Practice of Technology & Digital Studies
- AI in education and business
- Generative AI (including ChatGPT and Midjourney)
- Data science in education and business
- AI, Data & Society
Behrens’s Latest News
Behrens in the News
The Wall Street Journal
How Students Can AI-Proof Their Careers
November 20, 2024
Machines do pieces of work, but “we still need big-picture humans to put it all together,” says John Behrens, director of the technology and digital studies program at the University of Notre Dame.
PCWorld
Can AI be used ethically for school work? Here’s what teachers say
August 20, 2024
Vacca’s feelings about it were echoed by John Behrens, director of the office of digital strategy in the College of Arts and Letters at the University of Notre Dame, especially as students make the transition from the senior years of high school to the early years of college.
There’s also the concern about keeping up with the real world, said Nitesh Chawla, a professor of computer science and engineering at Notre Dame.
Nathaniel Myers, an associate teaching professor at Notre Dame who will be teaching a course titled “Advanced Writing and Rhetoric: Writing in the Age of AI” this fall, says he worries about even using AI as an editing tool.
AI Business
Can AI Be Conscious?
January 16, 2024
John T. Behrens, a professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Notre Dame, said that you can think of consciousness as having at least two interrelated ideas: autonomous action and self-awareness.
WSBT TV
Battling Artificial Intelligence in the classroom
Video Audio
January 03, 2024
Artificial Intelligence in the classroom has been a polarizing topic. But Notre Dame Professor John Behrens said, education is always changing to keep up with trends.
WSBT TV
Experts weigh AI concerns amid regulation discussions
Video Audio
May 22, 2023
“We definitely need regulation, we needed it yesterday, if not five years ago, because this is all getting away from us too quickly, and the real problem here is that there’s nobody in governments, who’s really tasked with understanding the powerful ability to use AI as a weapon,” said Dr. Lisa Schirch, Professor of the Practice at the Keough School of Global Affairs. Fellow Notre Dame Professor Dr. John Behrens also has concerns – especially when it comes to people using this technology inappropriately. "Now, it’s something that anybody can just download, or get access to, and start using, and that’s really going to cause some problems and that’s an area for concern for sure, and it might be an area for regulation,” said Dr. John Behrens, Notre Dame Director of College Technology Initiatives.
Forbes
Artificial Intelligence’s Higher Value: Spurring New Managerial Thinking
May 20, 2023
“Almost all jobs will be affected by AI because the core tools of the business world are going to be AI-enhanced at some point, if they aren’t already," says John Behrens, Ph.D., professor and digital technologies leader at the University of Notre Dame.
Detroit Catholic, OSV News
Will AI serve or replace Hollywood's human writers on strike for better wages?
May 17, 2023
“There’s plenty of reason to be concerned,” said John Behrens, who manages the New AI Project at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, and directs technology initiatives for its College of Arts and Letters. “We’re definitely in uncharted territory — both ethically and legally, and operationally from an economic perspective.”
CMSWire
Generative AI: Exploring Ethics, Copyright and Regulation
April 10, 2023
John Behrens, University of Notre Dame professor of the practice of digital learning and director of the Idzik Computing & Digital Technologies Program, told CMSWire that prominent AI technologists, as well as industry leaders such as Elon Musk, are concerned that we've “let the genie out of the bottle” and do not sufficiently understand either how the new AI systems will behave or how humans behave when interacting with them.
Lifewire
AI Is Writing Books Faster Than Humans—Here's Why That's a Problem
February 24, 2023
"These systems are intelligent in the sense that they are excellent at mimicking the patterns of words humans use, but not so intelligent that they can check for appropriate meaning, use, or specific facts," John T. Behrens, a professor of the Practice of Digital Learning at the University of Notre Dame told Lifewire in an email interview. "We still need humans for that."