On Feb. 3, Claremont Graduate University (CGU) signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) to formalize a partnership with Japanese artificial intelligence company Macnica, aiming to increase professional opportunities for students.
The proposal outlined in the LOI initiates joint research and leadership on ethical AI as well as applied research projects across fields such as cybersecurity, digital transformation and education. The plan intends to increase students’ connection to technology industries through workshops, hackathons, internships and project-based learning.
The proposal also establishes an AI for Humanity Research Institute between CGU’s Center for Information Systems and Technology (CISAT) and the Drucker School of Management. The research institute would be an expansion of current initiatives between students at CGU and Macnica.
Dr. Itamar Shabtai, director of CISAT, and Dr. David Sprott, the Henry Y. Hwang Dean and professor of marketing at Drucker, spearheaded the partnership. They said the project reflects a shared responsibility to develop AI in ways that serve humanity’s needs, rather than letting the technology outpace ethical and institutional boundaries.
They explained why CISAT and Drucker were the chosen schools to primarily engage in the partnership.
“The Drucker school brings human centered management [and] organizational principles,” Sprott said. “CISAT brings in computer science technology. So we can work together to really try to further the notion that AI needs to be working for humanity, rather than instead of humanity.”
Elissar Abdul Khalek, a Ph.D candidate at Drucker and assistant researcher at CISAT, participates in research initiatives with Macnica. She studies AI-human collaboration in the workplace, focusing on how organizations can leverage AI tools to foster creativity and innovation without replacing humans.
Abdul Khalek is also leading a Macnica-supported project to develop a system that would help students communicate the soft skills they develop in coursework to companies. Weekly meetings between CGU students and Macnica have aimed to develop an AI tool that would use data from class assignments to generate digital badges for students to show potential employers.
“Soft skills are very hard to visualize, especially if you’re a fresh graduate and you don’t have the actual experience,” Abdul Khalek said. “With this tool, [Macnica] is trying to develop a prototype so they will help employers visualize all the competencies that students have.”
The specific timeline for the project is confidential, but a prototype is expected later this year.
Shabtai said one of the main goals in expanding research initiatives like Abdul Khalek’s is to narrow the gap between the rapid pace of AI development and society’s ability to study and regulate it.
“We have very fast technology and a very slow society,” Shabtai said. “And this creates a big gap. This gap is very risky.”
Dr. Jody Waters, CGU interim executive vice president and provost, said CGU’s students are ready to take on the challenge of research in a fast-paced industry, as many have prior experience working with technology.
“A lot of our students are not coming directly into the graduate program upon completion of the undergraduate program. [When] many come back, they’re industry professionals,” she said.” So not only do they bring with them, you know, amazing expertise and experience, but they’re also established professionals working in a really rapidly changing and really complicated environment.”
Caleb Rasor CM ’28 is a member of Claremont Students for Abundance, a group that advocates using AI to accelerate innovation among humans. He sees the project as a compromise between the polarizing attitudes towards AI he has noticed.
“[People in higher education] either completely eschew it and say we’re going to try to ban AI or prevent AI usage wherever possible, which I think is counterproductive,” Rasor said. “Or they go the complete opposite direction, and have a full embrace of AI without considering how it affects learning, how it’s going to affect careers, etcetera.”
Rasor also said he hopes the partnership can help AI development become more ethical. He expressed concern about the uneven distribution of AI’s benefits, pointing to issues like job displacements and environmental impacts of data centers.
In a statement released with the LOI, Kazumasa Hara, president and co-CEO of Macnica, explained how Macnica intends to address ethical AI use.
“AI has the power to fundamentally transform society, its impact is maximized only when it is developed and deployed with humans at the center,” Hara said. “Our partnership with CGU represents a vital step in bringing this belief into practice.”
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