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Daily Archives: August 22, 2024

AI Scientists Have a Problem: AI Bots Are Reviewing Their Work

Chronicle of Higher Education: “When Arjun Guha submitted a paper to a conference on artificial intelligence last year, he got feedback that made him roll his eyes. “The document is impeccably articulated,” one peer-reviewer wrote, “boasting a lucid narrative complemented by logically sequenced sections and subsections.” Guha, an associate professor of computer science at Northeastern University, knew this “absurd” remark could stem from only one source: an AI chatbot. “If I wanted to know what ChatGPT thought of our paper,” Guha complained on X, “I could have asked myself.” AI is upending peer review, the time-honored tradition in which academics help judge which research should be elevated to publication — and which should go in the reject pile. Under the specter of ChatGPT, no one can be sure anymore that their intellectual labor is being read and judged by humans. Scientists, even those who think generative AI can be a helpful tool, say it’s demoralizing to be on the receiving end of an evaluation blatantly outsourced to a robot. And in an ironic twist, this blow to the ego appears to be hitting the AI field most of all: Up to 17 percent of reviews submitted to prestigious AI conferences in the last year were substantially written by large language models (LLMs), a recent study estimated…”

What Happens If Election Officials Refuse to Certify Results?

Democracy Docket on YouTube: “With reports of pro-Trump election officials gearing up to refuse to certify results should Trump lose, the certification process has become a major concern among voters as we heard toward the upcoming election. Sophie Feldman explains how the certification process works and what happens if election officials refuse to certify.” Continue Reading

Library of Congress Geospatial Applications Hub site

“The Geography and Map Division is excited to support the newly launched “Library of Congress Geospatial Applications” Hub site! Hosted in ArcGIS Online, a web-based platform created by Esri, “the Hub” provides online users with a new way to explore the Library’s wide range of StoryMaps and web map applications in one site. Conveniently located… Continue Reading

Meet the man archiving Biden’s presidency

Politico Tech Podcast: “The transition from one presidential administration to the next is generally thought to start around Election Day and end with the inauguration. But for the Internet Archive, it’s already underway. The nonprofit leads a coalition of libraries and universities that works to preserve the government’s digital history and to protect it from… Continue Reading

Generative AI is sliding into the ‘trough of disillusionment’

ComputerWorld: “Market research firm Gartner [requires fee but this article sums up the report well] yesterday published its 2024 Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, and the study revealed that generative AI (genAI) has passed the “peak of inflated expectations” and is now sliding down into the “trough of disillusionment.”Along with genAI, AI-augmented software engineering is… Continue Reading