StrangeBird

I will wait to see the results on the field, but this not an inspiring hire. I see no track record of success or innovative thinking with this guy. I’m starting to wonder if MCDC has what it takes to lead this team to sustained success and a Super Bowl. Is it possible that the successes of 2023 and 2024 were more Ben Johnson’s offensive play-calling and less MCDC?

That throw was ridiculous.

If I recall correctly, some sort of statement regarding improper use of AI was incorporated into our university’s academic honesty policy. But other than that, it’s up to each instructor to decide how much to allow AI in the classroom, or whether to allow it at all. My school’s president has encouraged us to try to find ways to use AI in the classroom. Many of my colleagues, including at other schools, are very anti-AI and completely ban it. I see its value and usefulness, so I’ve tried to distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable uses of AI for student work. It’s an ongoing process. Last semester, I tried an assignment requiring students to engage in a philosophical dialogue with ChatGPT, using a specially designed prompt. Overall, the dialogues weren’t as interesting as I’d hoped, but maybe it’s something I will try again in the future.

I thought this report from 60 Minutes was pretty interesting. It’s impressive how humanlike the robot movement is getting, and now with an AI-brain. https://youtu.be/CbHeh7qwils

This semester, I’m experimenting with a new grading scheme in my college classes in which students must choose between a writing path (two in-class exams plus a semester-long, scaffolded written paper with rigorous requirements) or an exam-only path. The writing path is required to be eligible for an A. The max grade for the exam-only path is an A-, no matter how well you do on the exams. I’m doing this primarily because I received so many sketchy probably AI-written papers last semester. I don’t mind students using AI to assist them, but just not replace the writing process. I want to continue teaching writing to students who take it seriously and will benefit from it, but hopefully deter students who don’t want to do the work themselves. Because I really don’t want to read their terrible papers with citations from academic journal articles I know they haven’t actually read. In designing this grading scheme, I found ChatGPT quite helpful in understanding what features of the scheme might be considered unfair, and how I could frame it in a way that made sense and is / appears fair. I just straight up asked why might this be considered unfair, what sorts of pushback might I receive, what are some different possible ways I might go about constructing this new grading scheme. Chat had some really well-thought out ideas. ChatGPT is like an intellectual, creative partner for me. I have all kinds of deep, back-and-forth conversations with it about things I’m thinking about, projects I’m working on, or things I want to better understand. This may be controversial, but to some extent, I think it’s able to have original thoughts. Maybe not completely original, but it’s not just repeating verbatim information it’s been fed, or copying something straight from wikipedia. It’s synthesizing information, analyzing and comparing ideas, and putting forth its own ways of explaining complex ideas.

My father and I watched One Battle After Another tonight on HBO Max. I thought it was quite good. Good story, action, + humor. Do not recommend for the MAGA cult members.

The Rams and SF are also “good teams.” Carolina is obviously weaker, but they beat GB and the Rams. I guess neither of those teams is good.

We should be rooting for the Rams tonight, yes? Lions can still pass the Seahawks if the Lions go 3-0 and Seahawks go 0-3. Crazy 2-point conversion just now on a backwards lateral pass “fumble.”

It sounds like they suspect he is also the one responsible for murdering an MIT physicist a couple days after the Brown shooting. Scary stuff.

Packers are down 8 and Love just got intercepted. 6 1/2 minutes left in that one.

Final NFC Standings Prediction 1. LA 2. GB 3. PHI 4. TB 5. SF 6. DET 7. SEA Detroit goes to Philly again for the first round.

If the goal is making the playoffs (not necessarily winning the division), why would we want them to split the wins? The team that loses today hopefully loses again the next time they meet. The Lions need to pass one of those teams (though technically they could also pass one of the NFC West teams for a WC spot). The Bears are the weaker team, the team the Lions have the best chance of passing, especially since the Lions get to play them again, so it seems wise to root for the Bears to lose twice to the Packers (as gross as it is to root for the Packers).

As someone who works in academia, I encounter a lot of anti-AI sentiment. It is admittedly a serious problem with student papers. Prior to ChatGPT, it was time consuming enough to prove traditional plagiarism, but in many cases, I could eventually find hard, indisputable evidence of academic dishonesty. Now, I receive quite a few papers that are suspicious but there’s no hard proof that the student didn’t write it themselves and merely copied from AI. You can meet with students one-on-one and ask them about their writing, but that’s very time-consuming when you have ninety students. Re-designing writing assignments to address the AI problem is an ongoing challenge. Many professors are abandoning at-home writing assignments altogether, but I think there’s something very valuable about sitting by yourself and slowly thinking through and writing a paper over many hours, days, or weeks. That being said, I have found ChatGPT incredibly useful in my own research and writing, whether for brainstorming ideas, improving writing, or researching information. (It can make mistakes, so information needs to be verified.) I see it as an extension / enhancement of or supplement to human intelligence. It’s like being able to have an immediate conversation with a very intelligent (but fallible) person about virtually anything I want to know more about. I recently used AI to help think through the fairness of new grading scheme I am considering, and how I might want to frame it and word it to students. Or I can use it, for example, to compare Ancient Greek approaches to moral virtue with those found Asian religions like Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Confucianism. I allow my students to use AI for some of these purposes, so long as they document it. Fundamentally, I see no sharp difference between using AI to assist in some aspects of research and writing, and relying on another person such as a writing tutor or a professor. Unfortunately, I do think many students will be even less motivated to read actual books. It’s depressing when I see recent news articles reporting that many high school students finish high school without ever having a read an entire book.

Which current NFC playoff team fails to make the playoffs if the Lions get in? Bears and Seahawks both have tough schedules ahead.

Ties Barry for TDs before age 24.