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Resist AI? Embrace AI? Think about mercury.

11/25/2024

 
MercuryMercurial AI
​Resist AI!   Embrace AI!

Let's do a thought experiment, You have on ounce of pure mercury. You drop that all at one time three feet onto a hard and non-absorbent surface. What will happen?

​
I put this prompt into Perplexity and received the result I expected. Scan quickly to the end, and see my concluding thoughts, please.

Spoiler . . . There is no single AI. AI is like dropped mercury. We cannot embrace or resist all of AI.
​

In this thought experiment, dropping an ounce of pure mercury from a height of three feet onto a hard, non-absorbent surface would result in an interesting and potentially hazardous scenario.

​Here's what would likely happen:

Initial Impact
Upon impact, the mercury would immediately splatter into numerous smaller droplets[1]. This is due to mercury's unique properties:
- High surface tension (480.3 × 10−5 N/cm)
- Low viscosity (1.685 mPa·s at 0°C)
- High density (13.5956 g/cm3 at 0°C)
These properties cause the liquid metal to break apart into smaller spheres rather than spreading out like water[1][4].
Droplet Behavior
The resulting droplets would exhibit the following characteristics:
- **Spherical shape**: Due to its high surface tension, each droplet would form a nearly perfect sphere[1].
- **Rapid movement**: The droplets would scatter quickly across the surface, potentially covering a significant area[3].
- **Coalescence**: Some droplets might recombine upon contact, forming larger spheres[1].

Safety Concerns
It's important to emphasize that mercury is extremely dangerous, and even a small amount can generate enough fumes to contaminate the air in a room[3]. This thought experiment underscores the importance of handling mercury with extreme caution and only in controlled laboratory settings.

Citations:

[1] https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-1-4614-1533-6_307
[2] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9450922/
[3] https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/mercury
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrargyrum
[5] https://byjus.com/chemistry/mercury/
[6] https://www.britannica.com/science/mercury-chemical-element

OpenAI: A Student’s Guide to Writing with ChatGPT

11/14/2024

 
ICYMI: There are several new guides for students to help them use generative AI (GenAI) tools. Educator friends, what are your thoughts?

This guide is from OpenAI (ChatGPT)
openai.com/chatgpt/use-cases/student-writing-guide/

A Student’s Guide to Writing with ChatGPT
Read the point-by-point recommendations to students at the link above.


Leon Furze creates course completely using generative AI

11/7/2024

 
Leon Furze posted a course ". . . to raise awareness of deepfakes and synthetic media" using Generative AI tools.
I shared his LinkedIn post on my LinkedIn profile:

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7260430289514999808/
This is what Leon posted:

This Course is AI Generated. Over a hundred educators are currently working through the free course on deepfakes and synthetic media.
The course is constructed with our deepfakes research agenda and my articles on synthetic media.
The scripts, slides, and AI avatar are all entirely AI generated.
It’s both an example of what can be done right now with synthetic media for course creation, and an exploration of the risks of the very same technology.
Join for free here:

​https://leonfurze.teachable.com/p/this-course-is-ai-generatedleonfurze.teachable.com/p/this-course-is-ai-generated
As an educator, consider the many capabilities of these new GenAI tools.
​Some uses are useful. Others may be harmful.

Generative AI Advances quickly

11/7/2024

 
November 7, 2024

In the months since I last posted about the impact of Generative AI (GenAI) on higher education, there has been change. The tools are more capable. There are many more tools, and finding the right one is difficult for educators. Some students are adopting GenAI tools, and some do not seem motivated to explore their uses.

Student adoption may be unethical, such as when students use the tools to complete assignments that were designed to assess their critical thinking or writing competencies. Student adoption may be ethical, such as when students use GenAI tools as directed by their professors, or creatively to generate new ideas, or to analyze complex datasets.

In my courses for the University at Buffalo School of Management in Singapore, I require students to use GenAI tools. I added the development of GenAI application competencies to the student learning goals. I will share assignments I have created, and my evaluation of the assignments and the students' work, after this fall 2024 semester concludes. 

Return soon to see what I can share about teaching the effective and ethical uses of GenAI tools to university students.

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