Big Questions: Business, AI and the Liberal Arts

William & Mary’s spring installment of the Tack Faculty Lecture Series, “Wisdom & Machines: How Liberal Arts & AI Learn From Each Other,” asked a timely question: What happens when human judgment meets machine intelligence? Drawing inspiration from the Jane Austen novel “Sense and Sensibility,” Rachel Chung, clinical professor of operations & information systems management at the Raymond A. Mason School of Business, framed her May 7 talk around a familiar tension: logic versus emotion. But in her telling, the contrast is no longer just between two human perspectives. One side now belongs to artificial intelligence.

“Humans love creating and using tools. AI as a tool expands our ability to process information, to detect patterns, to extend what we can ‘sense,’” Chung says. “But sense alone is not wisdom. It still takes human judgment, context and values to turn that information into something meaningful.”

Her lecture traced the roots of modern AI back through disciplines often associated with the liberal arts, including political science, mathematics, psychology and linguistics. The talk challenged a common narrative that positions AI and the liberal arts in opposition to one another. Instead, Chung illustrated how human expertise remains central to guiding AI systems.

“AI systems do not simply produce answers,” she says. “They reflect human choices about data, goals and values. The question is not only about how AI will shape our future. It is how we will shape AI.”

Learn more about the Tack lecture.