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Generative AI as a Critical Friend: Redefining Collaboration | Dr. Ian O'Byrne
Ian O'Byrne, 2025/01/08

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This is a useful reflection on AI 'as a critical friend', or as I've seen it styled recently, 'AI-in-the-Loop'. The idea is that AI is more of an assistant than a guide, more of a helper than a teacher. That has its advantages, but is not without its drawbacks, and this article explores both, from the perspective of writing software (where Ian O'Byrne's experience mirrors my own) and writing articles (where I haven't been using AI). Related: Thomas Claburn.

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Meta will attempt crowdsourced fact-checking. Here’s why it won’t work
Alex Mahadevan, Poynter, 2025/01/08

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"I remain a big believer in crowdsourced fact-checking - but as one spoke in a real trust and safety program" writes Alex Mahadevan. But the plan that's being rolled out by Meta won't succeed. Why? For the 'fact checks' to appear on posts "requires agreement from 'a range of perspectives.' In a hyperpolarized world, it's nearly impossible to get two sides to agree on anything." Also, "users are very bad at flagging posts that are actually fact-checkable - largely tagging opinions or predictions." Meta's plan mirrors that in use on Twitter. "Take one look at your X feed today. Is it more factual than it was three years ago?" Q.E.D., in my view. See also the Register, the Guardian, Nieman Lab.

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A video of a 1986 academic conference
Dave Beer, half thoughts, 2025/01/08

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Dave Beer introduces us to this video coverage of an academic conference in the 1980s. His focus is on what academic discussion  used to look like at the time. But as I browsed through the video I was struck by one argument - here's the clip, starting at about the 43 minute mark and running for maybe 20 seconds. Watch it here. It's such a harbinger of what's to come! - quite accurate, in my view, and yet dismissed with a scoff.

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The number of 18-year-olds is about to drop sharply, packing a wallop for colleges - and the economy
Jon Marcus, The Hechinger Report, 2025/01/08

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Jon Marcus, "The long-predicted downturn in the number of 18-year-olds is almost here. And the enrollment cliff isn't just a problem for universities and colleges.' This article treats it as an American phenomenon, but as the age pyramid for Canada shows (image), the exact same scenarios faces us as well, as they do some other countries, through they're handling it differently. Given how institutional budgets have suffered recently just from the drop in international student visas, we can reasonably expect a similar or even greater impact from broader population shifts. This is also why we should be increasing, not reducing, immigration, though that's a separate argument. All else being equal, institutions should be looking either to contracting by 25% or so or to serving that many more adult learners (which, note, will not happen in traditional classrooms and four-year full time programs). 

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Laughs about AI Abuse Prevention
Miguel Guhlin, Another Think Coming, 2025/01/08

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I think that if I had been presented with an ultimatum on AI like this at the beginning of a doctoral seminar I would have walked out and found something else to do instead. To be clear: this is not because of the professor's position on AI. He can hate it as much as he wants. It's because, as the doctoral level especially, the point isn't to "train you in the scholarly practices of reading large amounts of textual material quickly and effectively, synthesizing and discussing that material accurately and in detail, and then using the methods, insights, theories and approaches of those texts in your own intellectual work." Not that these aren't bad skills to have - I like to think I have them - but if the point is to "find out what my students think about a topic" then the 'training' in question is coming way too late in the process. If I haven't mastered "the process of creation itself" I don't belong in a doctoral seminar, and if my professor assumes I haven't mastered it, then that's a class I don't want to be in. 

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Multi-dimensional Digital Identity
Wesley A. Fryer, Moving at the Speed of Creativity, 2025/01/08

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Wes Fryer comments on a blog post by Allysia Doratti, Mirror, Mirror, On My Feed: Exploring Identity in a Digital World. The gist of that post and this is that "our online personas often reflect fragmented versions of ourselves. Instead of a single, cohesive identity, we become a series of digital personas, each tailored to fit the unique social and cultural dynamics of the platforms we use." I think this may be more cultural than technological; people following different feeds of mine get different content, but it's still the same basic personal underneath (and I wouldn't have it any other way). But what's important is that using different person allows people to express their identity in different ways.

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We publish six to eight or so short posts every weekday linking to the best, most interesting and most important pieces of content in the field. Read more about what we cover. We also list papers and articles by Stephen Downes and his presentations from around the world.

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