Dr Rachel Fu - The AI Revolution

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Let me introduce professor Rachel Fu who is  chair and professor of the Department of Tourism   and Hospitality at the University of Florida and  she's going to talk to us about the AI revolution   applications in the tourism hospitality and event  industries and before I turn it you to Rachel   um the way we run the seminar is if there are  questions during her presentation please type   it in the chat room I’ll be monitoring and  I’ll come online to ask Rachel the question   and more general questions let's defer them  to the end of her talk so without further ado   Rachel has a floor thank you so much everybody for  joining us and thanks for Rachel for presenting.   Thank you good afternoon everyone  it's my pleasure to be invited   to be one of the speakers during this  AI series I’m very honored I’m the first   permanent department chair in the department  of tourism hospitality and event management   also serve as the director of the Eric Friedheim  tourism institute the college of health   and the human performance this is very powerful  college and I also want to thank my boss Dean   Reid thank you for your support and many of my  colleagues you are in a room with me I really   appreciate your support. Today we are going  to talk about this topic that is very exciting this is our agenda I would like to overview about  the AI and impact on the tourism hospitality event   industries and we will talk about applications and  drivers of AI and AI data analytics certificate   in THEM and at the end we'll be talking about the  future of AI and the THEM and of course at the   end we will have the question and the answer the  helpful tips please be sure to use the chat window   to ask questions I will answer them at the end  of the presentations and any questions about my   talk or opportunities of research collaborations  please send me an email at racheljuichifu@ufl.edu Artificial Intelligence has been driving the most  significant turnaround in technology in the recent   years proper and timely AI solutions can improve  efficiency sustainability and resilience in   businesses and industries what is AI probably many  of you have heard about the definition several   times during the semester and why is AI it's  about involves machines they can perform texts   that are characteristics of human intelligence  and it includes planning understanding language   recognizing objects and sounds learning and  problem solving about machine learning it's the   opportunity to learn without being explicitly  programmed a machine learning is a way of   achieving AI as you train the model to learn for  example what makes a good short story and then you   can create a short story based on what it knows  the more data you feed it the better the output   will be this is the timeline created by a scholar  from Harvard University from the beginning in the   1940s 1950s to 2000 and continuously AI  has been on the map of our human society In Florida the tax revenue generated by tourism  related spending represents a primary source of   state government funding that helps to support  schools build infrastructures pay for health   care and other needed programs and preserve  nature setting and we are the number one   export industry and again throughout my  presentation I also want to go back to this slide   okay you see on your left hand there's a  very powerful gator so there's the number one number two and at the end I’m going to ask you how  many of our friends you have seen I also want to   share with you the model we use very often in our  tourism hospitality event management it's about   the visitor decision making from input process and  output my own master thesis many years ago 1996   is about economic impact assessment in 2000  my dissertation was about forecasting and the   artificial neural network there was one of  the model that I have utilized and today I   would like to utilize this kind of input output  model and connect to the vista decision making   for our visitors definitely there are many  different attributes will attract our visitors   to make a decision including products promotion  price and channel of distributions so products   in our area we have core product like a  destination events of celebration and we   have supporting products like hotels restaurants  and all the supporting group we have augmented   products like the image the personality  of the city and the level of hospitality   when visitors arrive that's how they feel and  that definitely impact our visitor decisions   in addition to that social cultural environment  like a family where you're originally from and   your current family your family members and what  kind of informal sources you have connected with   and your social class those will be the input  factors that be part of our decision making   as a visitor during the process our visitors you  and me we will make the decision and we need to   recognize what would be the reasons for us to find  a day or take a one week vacation we need to know   what we want what we need and we will do some  search so when you search once you search twice   we are doing the research for our vacation and you  will find a list of alternatives and our visitors   customers they will be thinking about what  would be a good deal for them to make a decision   some will be for their leisure vacation some will  be for their business trip one area psychological   field motivation perceptions learning personality  attitudes those will also impact people's travel   decisions and after they have made a decision  definitely the experience will come back and   tell them if they would like to revisit or they  would like to share experiences with their friends   so throughout my presentation you are going  to hear visitors tourists customers those   are exchangeable terms throughout my whole  presentation so the output will be our visitors   they will decide if they will come back or  not based upon the level of their satisfaction this is another very common level we use a lot  in our THEM tourism hospitality event management   for example when you travel from destination A  to B that's very fundamental you will stop by   at the gas station to get a bottled  water that is for your physiological   need and when you want to travel again from  destination B to C you want to take the flight   and the safety security of the airlines you have  selected definitely that's your choice and that's   how people feel safe to fly to travel the social  needs affection friendship and belonging for a lot   of time for example for the so for people they try  to think about to travel to certain countries so   for example I grew up in Taiwan and I would like  to introduce Taiwan to my kid and to travel back   to Taiwan that's part of the root tourism and  that's that kind of belongingness and for our   self-esteem this needs for our tourists will be  relating to the individual's feeling of usefulness   and accomplishment and lots of time people will  enjoy the spa tourism the self-actualization   is to become all that one is capable of being so  for our tourism we have so many types of tourism   for our research for our projects for our big data  doctor-ism the ground zero there is a symbol of   dark tourism sustainable tourism event festival  tourism film tourism food tourism game tourism   medical tourism for health or for all kinds of  reasons natural based tourism root tourism that   I have just mentioned briefly spa tourism sport  tourism volunteer tourism is a perfect fit to   the self-actualization you become a volunteer to  help a destination to rebuild their communities   their homes and during your spare time or  after you are done with your mission you   can stay there to play to make more connections  with the local that is part of volunteer tourism many types of attractions cultural  attractions natural attraction events so again   in tourism we have all kinds of tourism so  underneath the big umbrella tourism we have   hospitality usually we'll put it as hotels and  restaurants is more towards supporting products   but for casino hotels that is a major product  and the for restaurants depending on the location   you will be serving either locals or non-locals  locals will be the residents non-locals will be   the tourists so for attractions that's  one major product we want to attract   our visitors to our recreation activities  during the weekend during our spare time   and we have entertainment attractions theme parks  amusement parks casino and many others so those   are our business and in terms of applications  and the drivers of AI definitely these techniques   will be very useful for our attractions for  our hospitality industries for our event venues what is AI I would like to remind you all again AI  consists of a collection of multiple technologies   that allow machines to sense comprehend  act learn and showcase aspects of human   intelligence AI is often characterized as a family  technologies which range from low AI applications   such as a self-service kiosk up to  fully functional human-like robot   companions that are capable of detecting emotions  and relating to human interactively so today   as I mentioned earlier you are a resident of  Gainesville tomorrow when you're in new York you   become a tourist what can artificial intelligence  do for you for me when we are on the road so when planning a trip travelers usually browse a  variety of websites rights hotels and experiences   google performs more than 90 percent of the  web search volume according to an Expedia study   they found that 69 of travelers turned  to a search engine when starting to think   about a trip since 1998 when google became a  search engine the company has progressed from   merely providing blue links on a web page google  now has been collecting and building in travel   services for years it forays into travel began  in 2010 when hotel prices appeared in google maps   the next year google took another major step into  the travel space by introducing google flights   like Expedia google flights uses a meta search  engine to aggregate flights from major airlines   and then take you off their site to actually book  the trip that's how google makes money from each   click on its links the search engine will help  pick the cheapest dates when displaying fares   airfares and trends by the months a week  Pokémon go I don't know how many of you have   played Pokémon go and I did try it's  fun I remember last year I was in Taiwan   from the window I saw a gentleman who had  appropriate 26 cell phones with him and he tried   to catch as many Pokémon’s as possible so Pokémon  go is example of how an augmented reality game has   impacted many local businesses through consumer  behavior change amongst locals residents and among   locals in the last five years the Pokémon game  runs off an augmented reality heart or heads up   display of the real world players avatars explore  with them as they catch Pokémon collect rewards   from poke stops battle other users at the gyms  and team up to defend their territory again   if you have played Pokémon then definitely you  would understand what I have just shared with you   as Pokémon go users travel through their  cities and communities in search of Pokémon   local stores restaurants and other businesses  capitalize on this massive opportunity   driving huge amounts of foot traffic and  convergence both with simple in-app purchases   and creative marketing campaigns what makes  Pokémon go different from many other games is that   it doesn't keep people locked up in their rooms  for two US dollars an hour business owners can   have more customers than they have ever seen  by becoming a Pokémon collection station that's   before the pandemic but post pandemic I think  this kind of helpful game may be popular again tourism planning more than half of business  travelers believe ai can make a business trip   safer according to new project  conducted by a survey company 52   of the respondents indicated that the  use of technologies such as predictive   risk alerts around nature disasters would  decrease the risk of business travel   75 percent said they believe AI will be the  engine room of a more personalized experience   in the city of Tokyo in Japan this is a picture  from the hotel henna hotel is the first hotel   staffed by robots the hotel's multilingual robots  including a dinosaur a female figure robot and   an augmented cartoon figure greet you upon your  arrival and assist you with check-in and check-out   while the robotic arm at the clock room  will take care of your luggage with the   use of facial recognition technology you will  enter your room without using the room key   the hotel uses state-of-the-art  technologies to offer guests a high   degree of comfort this includes the smart  air conditioning system which can draw heat   from your body to cool you down or keep heat  from escaping your body when you feel cold another application in our area current  revenue management for the lodging industry   has been done manually the future trend will  focus on establishing an AI assisted revenue   management they can capture the maximum benefits  for hotels based on available data sets that   are related to both the hotel management and the  needs of the customers regarding hotel wellness in   the hospitality in this picture on the right the  headband is a brain sensing for the functions of   sleep tracking and meditation equipment that helps  users refocus during the day and recover overnight   an ideal future room for both residential and  hotel lodging is to enhance individuals well-being   through artificial intelligence to monitor  people's health and assist their relaxation and   sleep by using auto music and AI bedding they can  adjust the human body temperature and body shape   for a better support while creating a more restful  environment many believe that wearable devices   will eventually be able to accurately  interpret human emotions in the near future   the application of this technological capacity  in wellness industries would include allowing   employees to more effectively manage their work  day by determining the root of their stress   or knowing when to take a break you essentially  grant individually with the ability to constantly   optimize their emotional state they are in  restaurants here is our friend again our gator   several restaurants across the continents have  introduced new robot waiters or waitresses as   a way to reduce human to human contact in  the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic the red   and white robots would greet customers serve  food and pickup used dishes from diners tables   young people like to pursue what's new and  robots are fashionable modern style of service while the food industry is ripe for innovation  from the tech industry the adoption rate has   generally been relatively slow using AI as an  assistant the food industry can leverage machine   intelligence to speed up to speed up productivity  and development whether it's human resources   logistics or customer experience AI is a new force  driving the change of opportunity and convergence   for those robots in the kitchen they are able to  achieve the goal of automating specific food prep   tasks that can be done faster cheaper and  more consistently with machines but the best   outcome of this venture is how machines  can simplify the whole cooking process   yet still deliver the same consistent  test and experience a question for you   and for us to ask can AI help me make better  food choices this is where AI can step in   to help those unfamiliar with the kitchen make  better food choices the complex problem of what   to eat can be broken down to accommodate different  characteristics of food preferences personalized   to each individual by using AI and machine  learning information blocks on food patterns   used food eating behaviors and caloric value  can help us understand the choices better   every great chef will tell you that importance of  consistence is the most important thing in cooking   it's the consistency in cooking and the taste  which is the key to any great recipe with AI   every dish you cook can have the same  consistency and experience as your grand   mom’s recipe or new recipe that you are trying  out without compromising the quality or test   personalizing recipe for each individual might  be the trickiest part of building an AI driven   smart kitchen platform but it's also the best part  about building something so personal to the user   so what do you eat for your lunch I hope it's  healthy planning so again there are lots of things   that have been done and still keep doing in our  hospitality tourism events and also for the future   lots of opportunities using AI to analyze  attendees attitudes intentions and business   records this is a trend if you all have remember  the terminator movie series AI has been painted   as a technology horror movie the reality is AI  offers innovative ways to make our lives easier   according to a survey conducted in 2018 88 percent  of event professionals said they will be relying   on AI up 107 percent from 2017 event professionals  are quickly seeing the advantages of integrating   AI into their event planning checklist many  industries use AI to streamline and improve   their business and there are options available  to the live event industry as well AI is helping   event planners process big data discover the best  fits in venues locate the right vendors for their   event needs create efficiency with faster  decision making with the pandemic definitely   AI can help to identify who will be in the higher  risk group and how we can do some risk prevention   tasks digital meeting something may be useful  about predicting deep machine learning and a deep   neural network in a zoom meeting like right now  through NVidia Maxine there is a cloud AI video   streaming platform users can block the background  noise which I didn't know how to use that's why   you heard some noise but definitely our friend  NVidia will provide this technology for our UF   change their virtual background for their  ppreferences NVidia researches ai is   revolutionizing many sectors for the meeting  industries for example the ai program will be able   to detect a person's emotion by analyzing their  facial expression during digital meetings so by   looking at my face probably you can see I’m very  excited I’m very happy a little bit hungry so the   AI definitely can detect how I feel and you'll be  able to see that if you enjoy following the newest   models of all kinds of robots attending the  exhibition during a robotic week will be helpful   it's now more important than ever to learn about  the latest advances in robotics and automation attending robotics conferences and events will  connect you with the leading global suppliers of   robotics and automation components and systems  we will be able to learn about the companies   and their technologies and the view products and  systems that can help us for our unique challenges   is the comparatives for match statistics display  within this slide the application of AI in sport   have become popular in recent years following a  few areas in sport where artificial intelligence   is making contributions to both academia and  industries AI can assist us in evaluating players   potential and their estimated market values to  make smarter decisions in talent acquisition   regarding training and performance analysis  ai will be assessing individual performances   to identify strengths and areas of improvement in  terms of maintaining player health and fitness ai   will be monitoring player movements and physical  parameters during training to predict fatigue   and injuries in general AI can be greatly utilized  for the purpose of broadcasting and advertising   for example ai can be optimized in camera  angles for live events and maximize   advertising effectiveness the future of AI  so we do have a mission as a THEM department   we have students focus in tourism and the students  focus on hospitality students would like to go for   event management so all of our students most  of them will become industrial leaders and   managers so as the education educational unit we  really would like to have our department THEM to   be the leader leading person leading unit leading  education in our area so we would provide literate   AI data analytics for our students through  education and the research and it's happening   and again I want to thank our great leaders our  dean and our dean's office we all are really   start with this AI revolution this opportunity  that's just so fantastic as I mentioned we are   in a college of health and human performance  so it's AI how we can really enhance our health   AI how we can enhance human performance  and the THEM is part of the movement our second mission first one of course we are  research we want to educate students provide   opportunities our second mission is our THEM we  would like to have the platform to share knowledge   between and among our industries and our task one  is to identify AI related business opportunities   so currently we have advisory board members they  are all beyond fantastic we've been talking about   and they have been really supportive about what  we are doing after identifying those potential   possibility within our industries we also want  to establish multi-disciplinary teams on campus   and of campus across the nations and  globally so the multi-disciplines   will be in business product  development medicine neuroscience   kinesiology nutrition game design  geography architecture and many others so again the three biggest industry in our human  society education will always be there health   will be always there hospitality tourism  will be there because when you are healthy   definitely during your spare time what do you do  you travel enjoy good food hang out with friends   and attend as many concerts as you like so this  is our second mission we want to expand our   collaborations we want to reach out to interested  students in our program outside of our programs we   want to reach out to interested faculty members  scholars on campus off campus in the US globally   we are going to extend our friendly and hospitable  AI arms to collect information with you all and to   better utilize the AI the most published  areas in our THEM a lot of scholars have   been doing that and most are doing these it's  about customers reviews through the websites   through their post images photos and how  they will impact their travel decisions   their travel behaviors and the trends will be  the comprehensive more comprehensive about psycho   physiology that's a new world so think about  we are human being and we have a physical   we have spiritual uh component we also  have our mindful component and how our   the whole flow how they will impact each  other and again the app and the products   that's another trend that involve AI can  enhance our quality of life this is the   proposal that I have submitted along with my  colleague in business school and engineering   and we are in the process of collecting the  data assessing how AI data science can assist   in enhancing the quality of life for tourists and  residents in the coastal communities it's still   ongoing we have been awarded it with a super  computer capacity and with technician support   so it's an ongoing project and hopefully we will  be able to give you more report in the near future   so again our THEM we really would like to  establish partnerships as much as possible   collaboratively and collectively  we see as a bridge this is   my collaborators from other institutes they  have published recently by using the AI   and for the covid-19 pandemic their study  had expanded to the U.S. since early 2020  

and has caused national economic loss and the  public health crisis in their study their first   attempt covid-19 case predicting model based  on county level demographics environmental and   mobility data was constructed with multiple  machine learning techniques and a hybrid framework different scenarios were also applied to selected  metropolitan countries including New York City   Cook county in Illinois Los Angeles county in  California and the Miami county in Florida to   assess the impact from Lakita phase one and phase  three reopening the result of this project showed   that for selected counties the mobility  decreases substantially after the lockdown   but kept increasing with an apparent weekly  patent and the weekly pattern of mobility   and infections implied high infections during  the weekend the impact of lockdown or reopening   was also county dependent and varied with the low  core pandemic in future works we expect to involve   they expect to involve a longer period of data  consider more county dependent factors and employ   more sophisticated techniques to decrease the  modern uncertainty and applied to counties   nationally and other countries I perceive  personally and professionally the artificial   intelligence can help the business  sector bring back visitors safely so the takeaway before I mention the takeaway  I also want to talk briefly talk about our THEM   AI certificate we have received green light at  our college level so we are going to provide   the nine credits for both undergraduate  and graduate ai data analytics certificate   the required courses are ai revolution and  applications in travel in tourism hospitality   and event management that's required one of the  required courses the second required courses   is smart cities filtrations and the theme  parks and another three credits will be from   two courses you may select one the first one  is data mining and the social data the second   one is geography information system spatial  analysis with social data so with nine credits   you will be able to get the certificate  within our department we are very excited   we receive the full support from the college from  our department from our advisory board members and   now we are very excited to collaborate across  the university different units we also have a   different level of ai certificates they are  under approved and we want to be part of it   so the takeaway will be AI impacts definitely ai  does impact tourism hospitality event industries   they are increasing applications and drivers of  AI in our industries the trends of establishing   ai data analytics certificates are here a  feasible future of AI in THEM and businesses and   finally I would like to encourage and ask our  audience today I know you are the educators   and you are in a higher education system and  several of you are our industry friends partners   please empower your students faculty empower  them to keep imagine what would happen   by using ai so we are going to empowering  imaginations and they are unlimited opportunities   thank you thanks Rachel we have one question  about privacy issues that's the most important   if you look at the chat I mean I’m reinterpreting  a little bit the question but essentially some of   the issues that artificial  intelligence and deep learning   touch upon the require a lot of so to speak  immersive data that may start touching up on   privacy issues and so forth so if you would  like to address that yeah definitely um   it's also under the regulation every country has  different regulation and the privacy issue um   certain data company will allow you to do the  data analysis but definitely we are not allowed   to publish but outcomes would be helpful for the  business strategy management strategic marketing   and for privacy we do not invade  uh individuals privacy but again   with the power of artificial intelligence it  seems it's happening but now it's more about   what can we do to do the risk prevention  regulation and to work on those data collection   uh to protect our customers our visitors uh their  identity and again uh for in the coming uh decade   I was every it seems like every 10  years there's one movement I recall   uh 2000 that's the year or even earlier the hotel  industry they will be very thrilled when they say   we have internet connection so there's technology  and to 2008 is sustainability how to utilize the   green energies to maximize the economic impacts  revenues to minimize environmental impacts and   now another 10 years we are in the AI era so the  risk prevention especially protect the customers   there's a must-have so at the same time when we  are collecting the data to help the business in   hospitality tourism to have better understanding  about tourist behaviors how do they make decisions   what will be their next incoming destinations  and what will be their budget range and how many   people will be traveling with them this kind  of data when you are putting into your request   the AI is capturing so again the privacy is not  easy to protect 100% but definitely we do have   the right to that whatever the cookies or maybe  the company to click on the I’m not I am not   going to let you release my personal information I  think we do have the right to to click on that box   the next is the one trillion dollar question  of ai potentially replaces in many entry-level   positions in the industry any thought  I’m sorry so the question is yeah the   question is about that AI may replace a number  of entry level positions in the industry   you know front desk positions and so forth because  everything becomes automated so that's uh creates   a lot of both anxiety and you know how things  are going to play out any thoughts on that yes   some studies have indicated that about I  was at entry level perhaps somewhere between   20-25% those the front lines could be easily  replaced by AI by the robots and that is the   reality so that's why for the higher education we  are at the stage of preparing our future leaders   so we want to ensure that our students  will understand how to operate the machines   how to connect with robots how to tell robots what  to do instead of doing the cleaning by yourself I   think that is the changes in the industry and  for that with this virus using robots using ai   technologies definitely will enhance the health  safety measurement and that's reality as well   maybe Rachel you're reading  the latest question by narashi so essentially it focuses on whether there  are this particular categorization of security   concerns and how they're mitigated  by ai yeah the facial recognition um   in several countries the facial recognitions are  quite popular and acceptable at a different level   and for example since 2003 the stars happened in  Hong Kong china so when I travel back to Taiwan   since 2003 when I went through the gate  that's a machine and they didn't even use   the measurement so that's when I walk by the  machine on the screen I could even see myself   the heat map my body heat map on the screen and  the security person can really escort the person   who has higher temperature and just ask them to  go to a certain area to double check about their   health uh the temperature retake the temperature  so for those facial recognition let's take   knowledge and at certain again in some countries  the facial recognition also has caused some very   interesting issues on the newspaper when I read  in the past two or three years it seems like   sometimes certain countries uh they would like to  uh travel to another country to get a little bit   of beautification work plastic surgery but when  they come back to their country and their machine   is unable to recognize so there has been some  very interesting news so for that definitely   ai has improved not to be limited by the  facial structure but with even with our eyes   or the shape of somewhere that will be easier to  capture so I have a slightly different question in the domain that of applications that  you outlined what are the opportunities   for researchers from other fields to engage in  and collaborate with experts like you or your   colleagues you know if you can tell about you know  how we can connect at the end of the day it's a   big AI initiative on campus and people are looking  for new collaborations and you challenge problems   and so forth so that would be great thanks okay um  first of all send me an email and let me know if   you would like to become our friends our partners  definitely love to make connection with you racheljuichifu@ufl.edu and definitely  I also would like to ask all of you to   think about for our Florida the state of  Florida we have 100 million visitors per year   that's a lot that's a lot and for  how we can keep our business coming   ai will play a very uh important role  for us to enhance the quality of services   and the smart technologies and for different areas  as I mentioned earlier education that's definitely   one of the biggest industry another one health  care will be always there hospitality tourism   events will always be there because that's part  of our human society so how can we collaborate   we talk about in terms of eating behavior the  food choices restaurants selections food stand   AI cooking individual recipe personalized recipe  and personal health that's one area about eating   hospitality about sleeping staying overnight  some of you might have some relatives they are   running their own a Airbnb and so there's another  part of applications so for example Airbnb and   Lyft and the Uber they really their products  are the online app they collect the connections   they are setting the products  when they do not own the products   there is the idea so I will say how to call  and collaborate with each other is to think   about where we are we are in the state  of Florida tourism travel hospitality   events entertainment amusement park is always  there and how we really can make this to extend to   enhance the quality of our lives so not only for  the visitors and again for our state of Florida   we have lots of retired population people are  coming to retire here so not only for the tourism   industry but for our residential life uh I don't  know how you would like to plan your life for me   Florida definitely I’m coming here and I really  hope that I will retire here is a perfect waiter   love it so there's some opportunities to think  about how we can do these collaborations and for   on the screen you could see uh my boss  Dr. Mike Reid he is also a major contact   that if you are interested with connecting with  our HHP college of health and human performance   definitely Dean Reid is fantastic he is  a visionary leader and he is a big person   who is guiding us toward the ai direction so we  have a quite open armed for every opportunities   um thanks Rachel a couple of questions one of  them is a follow-up but I’ll first switch to the   one that says you know there's a big discussion  about algorithmic bias in all these AI algorithms   so what are the concerns as AI’s applied to the  broader area of tourism events and so on and so   forth about these biases and uh are there efforts  to mitigate them potential algorithmic bias again back to the policy development and about  the AI can I would say ai can take care part of   a human works that when it's dangerous when it's  not easy to deliver that's been very helpful but   in terms of replacement I would say at this  moment those robots they are very beautiful   they are useful they do their job very well but  they still cannot replace the nature of our hands   so there's a human touch so the connection  about using the hardware that ai can develop   can be utilized for product development and how  on our side how we can really enhance the human   experience the human connection because after  all when we travel we are selling the members   we are sending the experiences so people are  coming to spend five thousand dollars for   two weeks they are taken home with them of course  souvenirs that's one of our additional revenue for   our retail our products but more than that is the  memory that's the stories we want them to share   so in terms the ai of course there are a few areas  people are afraid of being replaced by ai but I   would say don't be afraid of because it will not  happen we are UF we are educating we are preparing   our students to become leaders so what the  students will need to do is to keep thinking about   outside of the box when there is a pandemic  we cannot have the in-person gathering   what can we do to have a virtual gallery before of  energy and excitement there is the opportunities   for us to think about and again when we cannot  go outside to exercise with groups but how about   have a app and you know a group of people they are  running nearby and you know you have the companies   who are running who are doing exercise be part  of your fellowship so there's lots of potential   for our lifestyle and the behavior so uh a  follow-up question on the previous question about   ai displacing frontline workers and so forth uh  are you or others uh ai scholars engaged in that   work trying sort of to evaluate what the impact  will be and to the industry more broadly and   you know um in the question they bring an analogy  to the challenges that happen uh you know um about   manufacturing that moved overseas and so forth yes  within our Eric Friedheim Tourism Institute we do   have several groups and one of the laboratory is  artificial intelligence AI data analytics labs so   with the lab we have varieties of scholars and  currently we have research teams and for myself   my background is economic impacts and forecasting  so definitely using forecasting methodology we   can forecast the amounts of AI will be adopted  in our industry the estimated number of robots   will be purchased by which sector and again how  many potential labors could be replaced and if   to be replaced what kind of programs that we can  really enhance professional development to train   them not to be replaced but to be able to utilize  upgrade their AI understanding and the knowledge   and there's a certain kind of forecasting economic  impacts how ai can impact our society and our   industry it's a trend it's painful and lots of  fear but it's good for human beings because uh   regardless you like or dislike we are in the AI  era and ai is everywhere even we do not know it   is it is already with us all right on that  note I would like to thank Rachel for a very   informative talk and all of you for attending and  the insightful questions asked as I’ve mentioned   the talk has been recorded and it will be  available on our site by tomorrow all right thanks   everybody is leaving how many gators have  you found throughout my presentations okay let's postpone that question for another  day nine people say that's the consensus   correct okay so for those of you who got it  right we are going to have one-on-one cafe   okay virtually so please send me an email  I look forward to making a connection with   you and I promise we're going to  publish together hopefully we will   get grants together there's a hope and  we're going to provide opportunities for   our students together thank you all I enjoy  having you great thanks very much everybody

2021-03-23

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