Douyin 'Experts Come to Campus' held at XJTLU

17 Apr 2024

Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University recently hosted the Douyin “Experts Come to Campus” event with the theme of artificial intelligence (AI).

The speakers, Dr Chunxiao Li, Associate Professor at the Technology Business School of the University of Science and Technology of China, and Guoao Chen, one of the first graduates from XJTLU Entrepreneur College (Taicang), currently working as a product manager at ByteDance, both spoke on the impact and limitations of AI.

Dr Li shared some insights on the irrationality of AI from a behavioural finance perspective. She spoke on the disposition effect, which explains that human investors tend to sell assets that have increased in value and to hold on to assets that have decreased.

Dr Chunxiao Li

“When using machine behaviour to study the disposition effect in psychology, we found that the AI large language model has biases and irrationality when making decisions. Just like human beings, it can be influenced by market fluctuations,” Dr Li said.

The second speaker, Guoao Chen, graduated from the BEng Data Science and Big Data Technology with Contemporary Entrepreneurialism programme at XJTLU Entrepreneur College (Taicang) and currently works as a product manager at ByteDance. Focusing on reducing “AI anxiety”, he shared his own study and job-hunting experience that were both deeply affected by AI.

Guoao Chen

“To cope with AI anxiety, we should try our best to stop fixating on all the things that may go wrong in the future and instead take action in the present,” Chen said. “We can try to draw a boundary for AI by thinking about the tasks that AI can undertake and the things that humans are better at. For example, we can use AI to assist us in exploration and innovation, while other tasks that don’t really require brainwork can be completed by AI.”

In the Q&A section, Wenqi Jiang, a Year Two student from XJTLU’s BEng Industrial Design programme, sought advice from the two guests on entering the field of AI-generated content.

Dr Li believes that it is crucial for designers to maintain their own styles and creativity instead of unthinkingly repeating and replicating. She said: “We should be the brain of AI instead of its hands.”

Chen suggested that students can find some “partners” with different professional backgrounds to exchange ideas and get in touch with more cutting-edge technologies.

The event also featured a photo exhibition showing works from the “XJTLU AI Vision” photography contest. Dozens of photos were on display, ranging from intelligent learning spaces and environmental and energy-saving architectural designs to campus scenes where technology and culture blend. Through the combination of photography and AI, students depicted their vision of the University’s future.

XJTLU AI Vision photo exhibition

Professor Youmin Xi, Executive President of XJTLU, taking photos of the exhibition

Participants taking photos in front of the AI interactive device

 

By Liu He
Edited by Luyun Shi, Patricia Pieterse and Xinmin Han
Photography by Lezhi Li
Translated by Xiangyin Han

17 Apr 2024