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Daily Archives: January 17, 2023

Alarmed by A.I. Chatbots, Universities Start Revamping How They Teach

The New York Times – “…Across the country, university professors like Antony Aumann, a philosophy professor at Northern Michigan University, department chairs and administrators are starting to overhaul classrooms in response to ChatGPT, prompting a potentially huge shift in teaching and learning. Some professors are redesigning their courses entirely, making changes that include more oral exams, group work and handwritten assessments in lieu of typed ones…In higher education, colleges and universities have been reluctant to ban the A.I. tool because administrators doubt the move would be effective and they don’t want to infringe on academic freedom. That means the way people teach is changing instead…

At schools including George Washington University in Washington, D.C., Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., and Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., professors are phasing out take-home, open-book assignments — which became a dominant method of assessment in the pandemic but now seem vulnerable to chatbots. They are instead opting for in-class assignments, handwritten papers, group work and oral exams…The misuse of A.I. tools will most likely not end, so some professors and universities said they planned to use detectors to root out that activity. The plagiarism detection service Turnitin said it would incorporate more features for identifying A.I., including ChatGPT, this year…”

These maps show exactly where we need to put solar panels, wind turbines, and EV chargers

Fast Company – “If more people are going to drive electric cars, we need many more EV charging stations. But where to put them? That analysis requires a lot of calculations: figuring out where the current chargers are stationed and where substations and electrical infrastructure is already built out, not to mention identifying which corridors… Continue Reading

Jan6th Committee – Social Media & the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol – Summary of Investigative Findings

Washington Post – Social Media & the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol – Summary of Investigative Findings – “…The Select Committee has also collected evidence from a high-ranking employee serving on Twitter’s Safety Policy Team on January 6th; she said that she was deeply concerned about the content that was being posted on… Continue Reading

Little-Known Surveillance Program Captures Money Transfers Between U.S. and More Than 20 Countries

WSJ: “Hundreds of federal, state and local U.S. law-enforcement agencies have access without court oversight to a database of more than 150 million money transfers between people in the U.S. and in more than 20 countries, according to internal program documents and an investigation by Sen. Ron Wyden. The database, housed at a little-known nonprofit… Continue Reading

Legal Writing I & II: Legal Research and Writing & Introduction to Litigation Practice

Fernandez, Ben, Legal Writing I & II: Legal Research and Writing & Introduction to Litigation Practice (December 5, 2022). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4293995 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4293995 “Legal Writing I & II; Legal Research and Writing & Introduction to Litigation Practice contains a brief discussion of all of the topics covered in law school courses on legal… Continue Reading

Public Art Archive Launches New Website to Make Public Art Available for All

Cision PR Newswire: “The Public Art Archive™ (PAA) announces the launch of an expansive new website designed by digital agency Bilberrry. A project of the Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF), a US Regional Arts Organization, the PAA is a singular platform for connecting with public art in any community. The site, publicartarchive.org, includes a public… Continue Reading

Sharing of misinformation is habitual, not just lazy or biased

PHYS.org: “USC researchers may have found the biggest influencer in the spread of fake news: social platforms’ structure of rewarding users for habitually sharing information. The team’s findings, published Tuesday by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, upend popular misconceptions that misinformation spreads because users lack the critical thinking skills necessary for discerning truth… Continue Reading

The Rule of Law and Respect for Persons

Adams, Thomas, The Rule of Law and Respect for Persons (December 8, 2022). Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4297359 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4297359 “This paper, for a forthcoming collection on the work of T.R.S. Allan, considers the relationship between the rule of law and individual autonomy. A common thought about the rule of law is that its observance… Continue Reading

How you could build a search that the fediverse would welcome

Anil Dash – “Mastodon and the fediverse are clearly taking off, bringing in millions of new users, and also organically inspiring a wave of technical innovation that dwarfs all of the efforts that the bribes and empty promises of the Web3 crypto bubble couldn’t touch. I’m even enjoying having settled into a relatively permanent new… Continue Reading

Getty Images v Stability AI

“This week Getty Images commenced legal proceedings in the High Court of Justice in London against Stability AI claiming Stability AI infringed intellectual property rights including copyright in content owned or represented by Getty Images. It is Getty Images’ position that Stability AI unlawfully copied and processed millions of images protected by copyright and the… Continue Reading