Our phone rings, and when we answer, the voice on the other end is that of a deceased friend. We receive a birthday message from a deceased child. This is possible today, and it’s happening. Thanabots , or grief robots, are artificial intelligence programs trained on information about a deceased person, obtained from their social media profiles […] … learn more→
Author Archives: Kevin
What are ‘thanabots’: dueling turned into a subscription service
Does ‘AI‑watermarking’ mean the party is over for cheating students?
about students cheating with AI are rife within schools and universities. Some lecturers have even expressed fears students have been “lobotomised by AI” amid reports AI-detection tools are patchy and far from fool-proof. Last week, New South Wales moved to ban take-home assignments for Year 12 to try to stop AI use in assessments. At the same time, a major generative AI […] … learn more→
Oral exams are making a comeback to stop AI cheating. But they have their own problems
Universities are increasingly turning to oral exams to stop students using artificial intelligence (AI) to cheat. Some unis say it allows teachers to more accurately test students’ knowledge. Meanwhile, some NSW schools are also using oral exams to prevent cheating. Oral exams – or “viva voces” – are one of the oldest assessment methods. But they are not a foolproof solution […] … learn more→
Leadership development programs – what doesn’t work? (Part 1)
I’ve had a beef with leadership development programs ever since I knew what they were. I’m not sure what triggered this. It could be the fact that back in high school, when I was a senior, we had a ‘leadership day’ that was held at a venue that wasn’t our usual school campus. Exciting, right? […] … learn more→
The decades‑old ‘AI alignment problem’ has finally become a reality. Solving it won’t be easy
Human beings have long told versions of the same warning: be careful what you wish for. In Greek mythology, King Midas got exactly what he asked for, but at the cost of everything else he valued. In the famous story of The Monkey’s Paw, a man’s wishes are granted through terrible and unforeseen routes. These stories feel newly […] … learn more→
How to protect and educate children and adolescents about sexual ‘deepfakes’?
You don’t need to be a computer expert to create fake sexual content using artificial intelligence tools. A simple search on social media or any search engine will turn up applications and tutorials that explain, step by step and in great detail, how to create fake sexual images, videos, or audio recordings. The popularization of […] … learn more→
Concierges, adjunct professors, potato chip tasters: US employers are relying more and more on ‘disposable’ workers
When I leave my Boston condo every day, I say good morning to the concierge, who works for a contracting company providing staff to residential buildings. When I conduct an interview in a nearby building, the people who clean that office at night are contractors. The person who serves me my lunch sandwich is a […] … learn more→
Turning a book into a series of workshops
Like a lot of my work, I take inspiration from many places. This post is going to reflexively unpack some of the process I used when taking the book Getting Research Funded: Five essential rules for early career researchers (by Tseen Khoo, Phil Ward, and Jonathan O’Donnell) and turning it into a series of grant-writing workshops. Firstly, […] … learn more→
A writing-without-fear game
Doctoral researchers sometimes suffer from lack of confidence about their writing. They can construct a sentence, a paragraph and a whole chapter. But they have difficulty when they imagine a supervisor, a reviewer, or an examiner reading over their shoulder as they type. Every clause gets checked against an invisible judge before it’s finished, and half […] … learn more→
No degree is AI‑proof. But delaying specialisation may offer students an edge
Choosing a university degree has never been straightforward. Students and parents have always asked which courses and majors offer the best returns and lead to secure careers. But now the age of generative artificial intelligence, bringing powerful new tools such as ChatGPT and Claude, has made those decisions much more complex. In New Zealand and elsewhere, students are […] … learn more→
