Fairfield University’s final Campus Connect event of the fall 2025 semester brought together two faculty experts—Anca Micu, PhD, senior associate dean of the Charles F. Dolan School of Business, and Tommy Xie, PhD, associate professor of English and director of the Digital Journalism program in the John Charles Meditz College of Arts and Sciences—for an engaging conversation on the rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence.
Held at the Fairfield University Store’s Second Story on Nov. 13, “AI Unpacked: Understanding the Technology Transforming Our World” drew students, faculty, staff, and community members eager to better understand how AI works—what it can and cannot do, and how it is reshaping daily life, business, creativity, and ethics.
Dr. Xie opened the event by distinguishing AI from generative AI (GenAI)—reminding the audience that while tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and image generators draw the spotlight, non-generative AI already drives everything from Amazon recommendations to Netflix queues. These systems don’t create new content; they detect patterns and predict behavior based on huge datasets. Generative AI, on the other hand, produces novel text, images, video, and code by learning from “oceans of data.”
Despite its impressive capabilities, Dr. Xie emphasized that AI “does not think” in a human sense. Using language inconsistencies and mathematical examples, he showed that AI can solve a problem correctly in one language but fail in another.
To address hallucinations and factual errors—or instances when AI produces false or misleading information—Dr. Xie introduced Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)—a system in which users provide documents that the AI cites and relies on directly. He demonstrated Google’s NotebookLM, which can ingest PDFs, webpages, and videos and then produce summaries, answers, and even AI-generated podcasts based strictly on those sources.
One audience-favorite moment came when NotebookLM simulated a podcast on planning a Japan trip, complete with listener “call-ins.”
Dr. Xie also showcased emerging AI agents, such as Perplexity’s Comet browser and OpenAI’s Atlas, which can autonomously navigate websites, click buttons and complete tasks online. In a live demo, he asked an agent to reorder dog waste bags on Amazon. The assistant accessed his past orders, navigated the site, and placed the item in the cart—illustrating both convenience and real privacy and cybersecurity concerns.
His closing message: AI should serve as an extension of human creativity, not a replacement. He encouraged the audience to stay in control—using AI for calculation and automation while relying on humans for ideas, judgment, and ethical reasoning. “We don’t want to be controlled by AI, but we want AI to be our extension… to release us from some repetitive and laborious work and really do creative things.”
In the second half of the event, Dr. Anca Micu shifted the focus to practical skills—especially prompt engineering and the communication strategies needed to get trustworthy results from AI. Drawing from her new book, AI Made Simple: Copy and Paste Guides for Everyday Tasks, she emphasized that effective AI use is fundamentally a communication skill. “The biggest misconception about using AI today is that AI is only for coders,” Dr. Micu said. “It’s not… The most important AI skill today is conversational: knowing how to ask the right question, how to evaluate what comes back, and when to trust your own judgment over the machine's.”
She demonstrated how thoughtful prompts—rich in context, constraints, and purpose—produce far better outcomes than vague questions. Showing examples of effective vs. ineffective prompts, she explained why general prompts don’t work: “The AI doesn’t know if we’re looking for scientific research… or if we’re just curious how the media covered this.”
Dr. Micu warned that unless instructed otherwise, AI will invent citations. “It makes up references,” she said, but “if we tell it, ‘give me verified, published results,’ it would stop that and give us the accurate ones.”
Fairfield Dolan currently offers an MBA concentration in AI and just approved an AI minor for undergraduates, featuring expanded coursework, workshops, and experiential learning to prepare students for AI-driven workplaces. “Employers are looking for hires who are familiar with AI,” said Dr. Micu, “who know and have tried it.” She encouraged a shift in mindset—especially among students new to using AI. “It’s okay to use it, just know how to use it responsibly, be transparent about using it, and use your judgment.”
