What relationship can there be between the results of an international educational test, such as PISA, and the democratic quality of a country? Only twenty-five fully functioning democracies remain in the world . The democratic system is weak because it requires the exchange of diverse viewpoints among its free and equal citizens. These citizens are […] … learn more→
Author Archives: Kevin
A ‘vitamin’ of critical thinking: learning rhetoric in school
Universities are making different choices about AI. How will they fit with their public missions?
Artificial intelligence has moved quickly from being an emerging technology to one that is rapidly forcing universities to make consequential choices. The federal government is investing heavily in university-based research in artificial intelligence, and has introduced an AI literacy strategy that includes a commitment to reaching one million entry-level post-secondary students. Research on technological change […] … learn more→
Why faculty diversity at universities still lags far behind the changing demographics of college students
U.S. colleges and universities have long struggled to increase the racial diversity of their faculty. And after they are hired, some faculty of color say they feel that their qualifications and scholarship are subjected to greater scrutiny, or that they do not feel valued by their colleagues and schools. As a scholar of critical race […] … learn more→
Is this the ‘mathocalypse’? Why OpenAI’s latest results dump has left mathematicians in shock
Earlier this week, OpenAI published a trove of hundreds of mathematical results it claimed could “push the frontier of human knowledge”. Produced largely by an unreleased artificial intelligence (AI) model, the 722 papers relate to 372 open problems covering everything from algebra and geometry to theoretical computer science. Several papers have since been retracted or […] … learn more→
What happens to language when machines start talking back?
A few months ago, a friend posted something that caught my eye on social media. She struggled listening to what she termed “(literally) breathless AI voices for audiobooks”. When I asked her what part she found the most off-putting, she said she had to stop listening because there was no natural breathing or variation – […] … learn more→
Not everything that is possible is desirable: what philosophy contributes to engineering
Imagine the following problem: we are trying to send trash into space to prevent it from accumulating on Earth, but we are not yet able to do so efficiently. How could we solve this? When I posed this question to my undergraduate engineering students during the Ecodesign course , one of the proposed solutions was […] … learn more→
Why Students Should Use a Grade Calculator
Studying is hard enough, but for many subjects or courses keeping track of grades can be a challenge on its own. A course may include grades on quizzes, projects, homework assignments, midterm exams, presentations, final exams, etc. Each of these is typically weighted differently so just looking at your scores would not easily tell you […] … learn more→
What if, for Silicon Valley, the extinction of ‘Homo sapiens’ was an acceptable ‘collateral damage’?
Transhumanism is a philosophical and cultural movement that argues that technology should allow us to overcome the biological limitations of human beings. Its proponents propose using advances in artificial intelligence, biotechnology, genetic engineering, neurotechnology, and other technologies to radically expand our physical and cognitive capabilities. They also envision delaying or eliminating aging and profoundly transforming […] … learn more→
Is artificial intelligence the ultimate resource for learning languages?
People’s interaction with generative artificial intelligence platforms, and specifically with large language models (LLMs ) , occurs, as is well known, through natural language, that is, using our language. On the human side, prompts are given , which include questions and commands to be executed. For example, data can be requested on a topic, or […] … learn more→
Scientists predicted ‘Friday 13 November 2026’ will be ‘doomsday.’ Should you be worried?
In 1960, Science, one of the world’s leading science journals, published an article with an unambiguous title: Doomsday: Friday, 13 November, A.D. 2026. It predicted that on this future date — just over a month from today — the human population would approach infinity and effectively annihilate itself. The outlandishness of the claim landed the […] … learn more→
