For some reason, I saw a bump in traffic to a page that linked to a “make-your-own-Trump-executive order” page

This sort of thing was funnier back in 2017. Similar:January 6th … the board game?Rapture #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 10) Sisko's "visions" complicate politic…Selling Point (Audio Drama)Letter to the editor: Setting record straight on Seton Hill newspaperDon't Be a Sucker (antifascist film from 1945)Hey there, chaotic world in academia and beyond, could you…

Students are trusting software like this to do their work.

  The technology will continue to improve so that that simulated gymnastics videos will look less and less bizarre, but people who can use AI to create flawless gymnastics videos aren’t actually learning gymnastics. No human being will become a better gymnast thanks to a better AI simulation of a gymnastics routine. More convincing AI-generated…

Googling Is for Old People. That’s a Problem for Google.

When I ask my students to use the library database to find scholarly peer-reviewed journal articles, some students stick with the search methods they’re already familiar with, and they submit works cited lists that include articles written by undergraduate interns, or articles from low-value pay-to-publish ecosystems like “Frontiers.” While I don’t read every article students…

What have my students learned about creative nonfiction writing? During class they are collaborating on a Google Doc that’s coming together very nicely before our eyes.

What have my students learned about creative nonfiction writing? During class they are collaborating on a Google Doc that’s coming together very nicely before our eyes. Similar:January 6th … the board game?Rapture #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 10) Sisko's "visions" complicate politic…Letter to the editor: Setting record straight on Seton Hill newspaperDon't Be a…

There’s No Longer Any Doubt That Hollywood Writing Is Powering AI

Two years after the release of ChatGPT, it may not be surprising that creative work is used without permission to power AI products. Yet the notion remains disturbing to many artists and professionals who feel that their craft and livelihoods are threatened by programs. Transparency is generally low: Tech companies tend not to advertise whose…

I’ve been teaching with this handout for over 25 years, updating it regularly. I just removed some references to poorly focused overhead transparencies! #overdue

I first started teaching with this handout in 1999 and posted it on my blog in 2000.  Like the Ship of Theseus, I’ve made gradual changes so it’s not really the same document, but just now I spotted hilariously out of date references to bringing along transparencies with you as a backup. Similar:January 6th ……

Despite its impressive output, generative AI doesn’t have a coherent understanding of the world

[A] popular type of generative AI model can provide turn-by-turn driving directions in New York City with near-perfect accuracy — without having formed an accurate internal map of the city. Despite the model’s uncanny ability to navigate effectively, when the researchers closed some streets and added detours, its performance plummeted. When they dug deeper, the researchers…

My mother-in-law invited me to try out the 60- year-old tape machine that belonged to my father-in-law.

My mother-in-law invited me to try out the 60- year-old tape machine that belonged to my father-in-law. When I worked in radio news in the late 1980s, we were still loading reels and splicing tape, so it all came back to me pretty quickly.   Similar:January 6th … the board game?Rapture #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season…

Bogus hit-and-run story about Vice President Kamala Harris created by Russian troll farm, Microsoft says

A healthy respect for the free press and the institution of journalism is absolutely crucial for a healthy democracy. Media literacy matters, while a jaded “I don’t trust journalists, I do my own research” DIY attitude is easily co-opted. A false claim that Vice President Kamala Harris was involved in a June 2011 hit-and-run incident…

No one’s ready for this: Our basic assumptions about photos capturing reality are about to go up in smoke.

Everyone who is reading this article in 2024 grew up in an era where a photograph was, by default, a representation of the truth. A staged scene with movie effects, a digital photo manipulation, or more recently, a deepfake — these were potential deceptions to take into account, but they were outliers in the realm…

LLM error rates

  I worked on LLMs, and now I got opinions. Today, let’s talk about when LLMs make mistakes. On AI Slop You’ve already heard of LLM mistakes, because you’ve seen them in the news. […] LLMs could be used to summarize sources. Something that’s fairly obvious in my journal club is that many researchers are…

Google, AI Announcements, and the Future of Learning

Glenda Morgan does not sound that impressed with Google’s latest promises about AI and education. [T]hus far I am unconvinced that the kinds of tutoring currently offered via AI matches the concept of watching a student’s thought processes and identifying the core issues they aren’t understanding. Instead, AI tutoring today seems to consist of breaking…