WSU President Betsy Cantwell is a full-on techie.
She spent more than two decades in national laboratories working on space exploration, energy and defense, followed by top leadership roles at state universities in Utah and Arizona driving significant growth in research funding. The longtime sci-fi fan embraces “future-casting” — a systems engineering approach to imagine and prepare for technological shifts a decade out.
But if that leads you to predict that the head of Washington State University is blanketing her campuses with artificial intelligence, you would be wrong.
The essential role of a university is to foster a sense of wonder in students, and that is something AI will never do, Cantwell said in a GeekWire interview on Friday.
That wonder, she said, “is innately human, and when we bring that into everything you do in a university, you create humans that will actually be much better at ideating, managing and creating value out of AI.”
In line with that philosophy, WSU faculty decide individually how to incorporate AI into their research and classrooms, with students actively involved in shaping its use. The technology serves as a tool to reach a goal, but is not the goal itself.
As the head of WSU — which serves 25,400 undergraduate and graduate students across its main campus in Pullman, four branch campuses, and an online program — Cantwell uses AI as an operational partner. On a $1.3 billion annual budget that also supports 39 county extension offices and research centers, she looks for practical AI applications to streamline functions and accelerate technology transfer.
Drawing on her national lab experience, Cantwell believes AI can bridge the gap between basic research and commercial production. Instead of universities simply “throwing papers over the transom,” she said AI-driven modeling helps build intermediate proofs-of-concept and testbeds that help attract private-sector investments.
This approach is at the foundation of WSU’s planned $50 million, federally funded research center using AI to support salmon recovery and sustainable aquaculture, as well as AI-enhanced micro-climate tools from the university to aid Washington’s farmers.
One area where Cantwell is personally using AI to guide high-stakes decision-making is in navigating the turbulent business of college athletics.
In 2023 — two years before Cantwell joined WSU — the University of Washington pulled out of the Pac-12, triggering an implosion of the century-old conference that left only WSU and Oregon State as members.
Cantwell believes strongly in the value of WSU’s athletics program, calling it a vital convener that brings alumni and fans together across political and social spectrums, while providing an academic doorway for student-athletes who might not otherwise pursue higher education.
To navigate the financial fallout, she built her own custom AI agent to run tabletop scenarios and model financial paths for WSU’s sports enterprise. She treats the exercise much like national security strategic planning.
The AI agent allows her to analyze variables including coaching salaries, stadium operations, student-athlete employment litigation, federal regulatory proposals, and revenues generated through Pac-12 Enterprises, the conference’s business arm. Cantwell sees the grit of WSU rebuilding after the Pac-12 split as a compelling story of innovation and entrepreneurship, one that new digital media channels can help broadcast.
Where Cantwell draws the line, however, is AI use in sports betting, which she views as a concerning manipulation of human behavior that threatens the integrity of college athletics.
GeekWire came prepared for our interview by asking different AI chatbots to predict the outcome of Sunday’s Apple Cup showdown between WSU and UW at Seattle’s Husky Stadium. Suffice to say, the AI says it doesn’t look good for the squad from the Palouse.
But before we could deliver that news, the top Cougar made it clear she wasn’t interested in hearing what Gemini, Claude or any other AI platform forecast for the game.
“The only reason why I would want to know the score in advance is if I was betting and I don’t do that,” Cantwell said. “Why do you need to know in advance?”
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