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Karl Haviland ’06

Karl Haviland ’06
Principal at Haviland Software, UM Data Science
Computer Science major

Briefly share some of your background working in the world of tech/coding and AI (Nearly Human, Koding Kurriculum).

Karl Haviland, the founder of Haviland Software, has 17 years of experience as a computer scientist and technology executive across government, insurance, education, and energy management industries. His background includes expertise in computer science, data science, and AI.

Haviland Software was established at the beginning of 2023 to build software and data science solutions for mission driven organizations—especially in the climate and sustainability sector— integrating AI responsibly and effectively. Examples of projects include working on the Energy Score Cards product for Bright Power to measure utility and carbon use in multifamily residential buildings, and the Empower AI toolkit for community-based organizations with Unified Ground and CIV:Lab.

Do you find that the use of AI has increased job efficiency and/or accuracy? If so, how? And are there any drawbacks you’ve encountered when using AI?

Yes, AI absolutely improves job efficiency by automating repetitive tasks, reducing human error, and providing predictive analytics to make informed decisions! This includes summarizing large documents, writing emails, generating code, and with what is known as agents, doing actual work on the Internet and making decisions in real time.

However, it is very important at this point to maintain people in the loop. AI is dynamic like people and can get things wrong, and so there are many ethical and legal considerations that companies need to consider - such as use in hiring practices or insurance approvals where laws are emerging regarding audit regulations based on bias lawsuits that have been brought on.

Haviland Software helps organizations both build software and workflows with responsibility practices in mind.

Do you think it is necessary for current Lycoming students to explore AI to better position them for hires and prepare them for successful career paths?

Absolutely. AI is revolutionizing nearly every industry, and understanding it provides a competitive advantage. Learning how to manage tools properly that use AI prepares students to lead in a tech-driven world.

In fact I would suggest to my fellow computer science majors to spend time learning what is known as prompt-driven development practices. There are emerging techniques where code is generated through conversations between the developer and AI to exponentially speed up the development process.

Anything else you’d like to share regarding AI?

Be very cautious with your information when you use online tools to perform work. In most cases, a company may provide free services in exchange to collect your data. This data is valuable because it is then passed along to the models that train the AI that their customers then use. Once it is embedded within these models, it is nearly impossible (at the moment) to remove.