Never before have we had so much information available. News, analysis, commentary, and opinions circulate endlessly on social media, digital platforms, and messaging apps. Paradoxically, this abundance doesn’t always translate into a better understanding of reality. Often, the opposite occurs: information overload encourages quick reading and immediate reactions that fuel increasingly polarized debates. When phenomena […] … learn more→
Author Archives: Kevin
How information overload has caused us to lose the ability to read deeply, and what to do to recover it.
Cameras have quietly appeared in thousands of US cities – now, their integration with AI is sounding alarms
For decades, cars dictated urban planning in the United States. Few could have predicted that they would one day also double as nodes for surveillance. In thousands of towns and cities across the U.S., automatic license plate readers have been installed at major intersections, bridges and highway off-ramps. These camera-based systems capture the license plate data of passing vehicles, […] … learn more→
What is “agentic AI”? Understanding its history to move beyond the hype
Booking a trip by comparing hundreds of offers, writing a report from multiple documents, analyzing medical data, or automatically correcting a computer program: these tasks require thought, method, and a variety of skills. “Agent AI” now promises to accomplish them autonomously, orchestrating the necessary operations, using tools, and correcting its own errors. However, current agent […] … learn more→
How can we tell if a student has learned, even if they use artificial intelligence?
The rise of generative artificial intelligence has weakened the traditional university assessment model of “independent work + practical activities + final exam”. Today, a student can produce a well-structured, academically-sounding report in minutes. Banning AI or turning assessment into a cheating hunt doesn’t fix the underlying problem: what’s at stake is not the technology, but […] … learn more→
AI: Why training a “well-rounded mind” has never been more crucial
As generative artificial intelligence produces increasingly convincing texts, images, and reasoning, a crucial educational question emerges: what does understanding still mean? In the age of information overload, developing a “well-formed mind” no longer consists of accumulating knowledge, but of learning to judge its depth, validity, and relevance to reality. Students today can produce work that […] … learn more→
If using ChatGPT is cheating, what about ghostwriting? The old debate behind a new panic
In February 2023, a little more than a year after the launch of ChatGPT, Vanderbilt University sent an email to its student body in the wake of a fatal campus shooting at Michigan State. “The recent Michigan shootings are a tragic reminder of the importance of taking care of each other,” the email read in part. In […] … learn more→
The oral exam, updated: an assessment alternative in times of AI
Assessing student knowledge is not the ultimate goal of a subject, but a fundamental part of the learning process itself. It is the only way for both learners and teachers to understand how students are progressing, what their strengths and areas for improvement are, and what the practical application of what they are learning is, […] … learn more→
AI in universities, a bombshell for critical thinking: how can we prevent it from exploding in our faces?
The widespread and uncritical adoption of generative artificial intelligence (GAI), with large language models like ChatGPT and others, can degrade the university experience and undermine the mission of the university. While this technology offers interesting applications, when used without reflection or pedagogical integration, emerging studies indicate that it tends to empty learning of content, undermine academic work, […] … learn more→
Using your AI chatbot as a search engine? Be careful what you believe
During the first world war, the British government was looking for ways to help people stretch their limited food supplies. It found pamphlets from a noted 19th-century herbalist who said rhubarb leaves could be used as a vegetable along with the stalks. The government duly printed its own pamphlets advising people to eat rhubarb leaves […] … learn more→
Eight “free” things we unknowingly pay for when we use the internet
We live in the age of free things. Free social media, free email, free search engines, free maps, free news, free artificial intelligence. Capitalism, that system we so often accuse of greed, seems to have become generous. But there’s a small, uncomfortable detail: nothing in this world is self-generating. As Karl Marx reminded us , all value […] … learn more→
