The release of ChatGPT on November 30 marked a new milestone in the development of language processing technologies. It is in any case the first time that an AI system, directly resulting from research, has aroused such enthusiasm: numerous articles have appeared in the specialized but also general press. ChatGPT (or OpenAI, the company that develops ChatGPT, or both) […] … learn more→

In the winter of 2016, the Google Nest home automation manager made a software update to its thermostats that caused battery damage . A large number of users were left disconnected, though many were able to change batteries, buy a new thermostat, or wait for Google to fix it. The company indicated that the failure would have been caused by the artificial intelligence […] … learn more→

Students who work while enrolled in college are about 20% less likely to complete their degrees than similar peers who don’t work, a large and meaningful decrease in predicted graduation rates. Among those who do graduate, working students take an average 0.6 of a semester longer to finish. This is mainly because students who work […] … learn more→

Australia is welcoming back international students in much greater numbers this year. Some predict new enrolments in 2023 could even be higher than the pre-COVID record in 2019. Student visa applications in the second half of 2022 were up 40% on the same period in 2019. The downside is many of these students are likely to struggle to find […] … learn more→

Last Saturday night, a young woman out on the town in Brisbane saw a dog-shaped robot trotting towards her and did what many of us might have felt an urge to do: she gave it a solid kick in the head. After all, who hasn’t thought about lashing out at “intelligent” technologies that frustrate us as […] … learn more→

For most of human history if you wanted to know what was going on behind someone’s eyes you had to make your best guess. But since the 1960s scientists have been studying the way eye movements may help decode people’s thoughts. The ability to eavesdrop on the details of people’s daydreams and internal monologues is […] … learn more→

When William A. Smith, a scholar of education and culture, introduced the term “racial battle fatigue” in 2003, he used it to describe the cumulative effects of racial hostility that Black people – specifically faculty and graduate students – experience at predominantly white colleges and universities. In short, it takes a toll on their psychological, physical and emotional well-being. […] … learn more→

This coming spring, a new group of students will think about choosing university majors when they apply to campuses across North America. In all likelihood, fewer of those students will choose humanities subjects — traditionally understood to include history, literature, philosophy, languages and the arts — as their major, than in past years. This is because of an […] … learn more→

The pandemic has undermined possibly prosperous dreams and has even put an end to stories that have not had a chance to begin. Poverty, injustices and inequalities have increased. Faced with this situation, as humanity, we must follow the ethical horizon proposed in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It defines 17 objectives and 169 goals that challenge us […] … learn more→

By at least one measure, China now leads the world in producing high-quality science. My research shows that Chinese scholars now publish a larger fraction of the top 1% most cited scientific papers globally than scientists from any other country. I am a policy expert and analyst who studies how governmental investment in science, technology and innovation improves social welfare. While a […] … learn more→