The intersection of human evolution and artificial intelligence

An average day for Arizona State University alumnus Andy Garcia includes coordinating, planning and supporting extensive product testing, all for autonomous vehicles.

Over the past 10 years, Garcia’s career has evolved with new uses for technology, including the growing presence of artificial intelligence in machines such as the self-driving cars he works on today. 

It wasn’t the path he originally envisioned for himself. The San Jose, California, native originally attended school to pursue a career in film. But in the back of his mind, another lingering passion of his was hard to ignore: his fascination in archaeology. 

“My uncle is an Egyptologist, and growing up, I was exposed to his work and developed an early curiosity about the ancient world. After taking a few anthropology courses as electives, I realized I had found something that brought together many of my interests. I became fascinated by history, culture and the ways different societies influence one another,” said Garcia. 

Fast forward to 2020, Garcia wanted to return to school to take those interests and apply them to completing his degree without losing momentum with his career. His decided to attend ASU Online.

“At the time, there were very few fully online anthropology degree programs available to students in California. ASU was ahead of the curve in creating an end-to-end online learning experience for anthropology students,” said Garcia. “That flexibility allowed me to continue working full time while finally achieving an academic milestone that I had put on hold for more than six years.”

Garcia's desire to pursue anthropology through The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences’ School of Human Evolution and Social Change came about from wanting to learn more about traditions, technologies, beliefs and social practices. Most compelling of all to Garcia was exploring how human societies in different environments can generate similar solutions to the same problems. 

“Geography, resources, history and culture may differ dramatically, yet certain patterns of human behavior continue to emerge. To me, that paints a powerful picture of just how much we all have in common,” he said.

Garcia said one of his favorite memories from school was his experience completing a final project for one of Regents Professor and President’s Professor Amber Wutich’s courses. As part of the project, he analyzed the uneven distribution of water resources and heat-illness prevention infrastructure throughout the Phoenix metropolitan area. It was a project that has stuck with him ever since. 

“Whenever I visit a new city on a hot day, I find myself thinking about that project and looking for similar patterns. You can learn a lot about what people value based on who has access to resources, where that infrastructure is located and how those differences shape people's everyday lives,” he said. 

The skills he learned from those projects alongside the other experiences he participated in has helped strengthen the research and analytical skills he relies on every day including collecting data, drawing conclusions from evidence, reproducing results and communicating findings to experts across different disciplines. 

“Those skills have been central throughout my career across four tech startups working in robotics and autonomous vehicles. Anthropology taught me how to ask better questions, recognize the human context behind the data and approach complex problems from multiple perspectives,” he said.

By studying human behavior and the ways people adapt new technologies has helped him collaborate with engineers and user experience teams in order to create comfortable and accessible experiences for the company’s users. 

When it comes to studying the liberal arts and sciences overall, Garcia sees its importance and relevance rising as technological advancement rises at a rapid rate. For him, these disciplines offer an opportunity to understand what it means to be human.

“Every invention eventually enters the lives of real people, and understanding how people think, behave, adapt and make decisions is essential if we want technology to genuinely improve the world,” he said.

Building the next generation of technology requires a deep care for pursuing the "why" of human behavior and how situations may be shaped by emotion, impulse, fear, ambition or personal justifications. Doing this, as Garcia puts it, will enable better preparation for technologically complex futures that are also thoughtful, equitable and humane. 

The 2023 graduate’s advice to students comes from words of encouragement, emphasizing the importance of pursuing something out of passion rather than settling for practicality. He points out that careers can evolve in unpredictable ways, speaking from personal experience. 

“It is often easier to build practical skills around something you care deeply about than it is to spend years forcing yourself through a path that feels like a chore. For anthropology students in particular, there are far more opportunities outside academia than many people realize,” he said. “An anthropology education exposes you to a wide range of subjects and teaches you how to approach problems from different perspectives. That makes you adaptable, which is incredibly valuable in a rapidly changing job market.”

In terms of the business and technology industries, he’s seen a growing need for people who can think creatively while making decisions supported by evidence. In Garcia’s experience, the ability to understand others, analyze complex systems and communicate across disciplines are just as valuable as technical knowledge.

“In the tech industry, there's a lot of focus on what we can build and what technology will be capable of next. I think anthropologists bring a valuable perspective by looking at how those technologies fit into people's everyday lives and how people will actually respond to them.”