The Academy
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Does AI degrade human comprehension and reasoning?
Law professors at the University of Minnesota investigated, and came up with a somewhat more optimistic answer than a lot of research–although careful structuring of how and when it’s used is probably needed to avoid negative effects. Comments from readers who actually read the paper are welcome.
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AI cheating and pangram redux
Philosopher Stefan Sciaraffa at McMaster in Canada writes: I read the Unherd piece…I align with its general spirit. However there is one key claim that I’m not so sure about. I’ve been using Pangram. It has a vanishingly small false positive rate. Folks at the business school at your university have verified this. I’ve run…
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“AI will destroy universities”
That’s political theorist Paul Sagar’s not implausible assessment; an excerpt: I…teach political philosophy in a British university, so I have had to wrestle with the impact of large language models (LLMs) in one small domain: higher education. And here, my conclusion is simple. The threat they pose is existential…. Specifically, students who use LLMs to…
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Universities are a lot more complex than academic critiques of their “wokeness” or “neoliberal” character would suggest
I commend to your attention this very nicely written piece by by my philosophy colleague Maya Krishnan. She gives a charitable (and interesting) explanation of what is behind this endless grousing about universities. My less charitable explanation is that academics, aggrieved by, but irrelevant to, the state of the world at large, take out their…
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NYU Abu Dhabi closes its campus (for the time being I assume)
This is dramatic, but seems sensible given the war of aggression by the U.S. against Iran. Information from faculty or students there is welcome (please use a real email address, but otherwise you may post anonymously). Are people leaving the country, merely staying off campus, or something else?
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Texas war on free speech and academic freedom: Texas State University edition
A tenure-track philosophy professor, fired because of his lawful speech about the Israel-Palestine conflict, has sued the university. Let us hope the courts can make these rogue universities comply with the Constitution. (Thanks to Peter Kail for the pointer.)
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Even judges cannot figure out whether lawyers are incompetent or using AI!
Philosophy graduate student Charles Bakker sends me this interesting article from Canada about an “Ontario lawyer [who] filed seven completely fake quotations from court cases to a judge while arguing in court, but claims it was human error and not artificial intelligence tools behind it. A skeptical judge wonders if the lawyer’s claim makes things…
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“Identity politics and scolding moralism” on the “academic left”
This was amusing, from philosopher and political activist Ben Burgis: It’s one thing to know that someone whose overwhelming passion is metaphysics or epistemology or even abstract moral philosophy is a huge lib, and another to see them become more and more politically engaged in ways you find insufferable. Part of this story is about…
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University of Florida “College Republicans,” i.e., the Hitler Youth League
Amazing. In fact, they do have a First Amendment right to be Nazis. The U.S. position on “hate speech” may soon come home to roost.
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“The philosopher who learned to bust unions”
Ann Cudd, President of Portland State University, once again.
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36% decline in student visas issued under Trump…
…during May and June 2025 (crucial months) according to CHE. The decline was even higher in some countries, like India. This is probably a combination of foreign students rethinking their interest in studying in the U.S., given the serial violations of the free speech rights of foreign students by the Trump Administration, and more vetting…
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Professional organizations of humanists (but not the APA) file motion for summary judgment (i.e., a decision in their favor based on the law and facts)…
…to restore NEH funding. As the NYT reports, discovery uncovered that Elon Musk and his DOGE automatons used ChatGPT to identify grants to be rescinded. (Thanks to Hayley Cotter for the pointer.)
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Oklahoma legislature advances legislation to end tenure for all hires after 2027, including at the public research universities
The legislature has decided to do the Governor one better, and destroy the research universities, as well as the other state colleges and universities. Of course, Oklahoma may also inspire a race to the bottom with other red states. Tenure is a form of non-monetary compensation, so at some point there will be pressure to…
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Philosopher Ann Cudd, now Portland State President, has written extensively on oppression…
…but it’s not had any effect on her praxis! This is a devastating analysis by a Portland State professor, that brings Cudd’s philosophical work to bear on how she has treated faculty and programs at PSU. An excerpt: In Analyzing Oppression, Cudd is clear that the most dangerous form of oppression operates through economic forces that…
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Ohio State’s “Civics” Center now paying students to take its classes and attend its events
Remarkable. (See the earlier discussion of these proliferating centers, whose political litmus test hiring procedures are lawsuits waiting to happen.) (Thanks to Marc Lange for the pointer.)
Sorry to keep beating a dead horse, but something just occurred to me that I haven’t seen anyone discuss. Why…