Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings is hoping to encourage more researchers and students to delve into the impact of artificial intelligence on human norms. To support this cause, Hastings made a generous donation of $50 million to his alma mater, Boudine College, establishing a research initiative on “AI and Humanity,” the largest gift the liberal arts college has received since its founding in 1794.
The ultimate goal of the program, according to Hastings and school officials, is to transform Boudine into a hub for investigating the risks and consequences of AI. It also aims to equip students to address emerging technologies that are capable of producing human-like text and creating formulas for potential new medications.
The concept for this initiative stemmed from conversations between Hastings and President Boudin over recent months. They see it as an opportunity to enhance the academic experience by incorporating AI into education and research. Some of the funds will be used to hire 10 new faculty members to support professors looking to integrate AI into their teaching and research.
In a recent interview, Hastings emphasized the importance of researchers addressing these critical questions given the rapid advancements in AI and the potential disruptions it could bring to various aspects of human life, such as work and relationships.
He stressed the urgency of preparing for the transformative impact of AI, comparing it to the rapid growth of social networks that initially caught many off guard with their societal implications.
Dr. Zaki, a cognitive scientist and President of Boudin, expressed his hope that Bowdoin faculty and students will develop an ethical framework for exploring and utilizing AI technology to address fundamental questions.
He posed thought-provoking questions about the ethical dimensions of AI and stressed the moral duty of educators to engage with these issues.
As AI becomes more pervasive in daily life, millions of people are utilizing it for tasks ranging from information retrieval to generating computer code. The creators of these tools predict that even more advanced AI systems will significantly alter our daily routines.
While some tech leaders in Silicon Valley paint a positive image of an AI-driven future, the new initiative at Boudin College seeks to critically examine how AI is reshaping society for better or for worse. Hastings hopes this program will ensure that technological advancements are aligned with benefiting people and society.
Expressing his optimistic view on technology, Hastings believes that human progress is closely tied to our moral and ethical systems. He highlights the importance of strengthening these systems to guide technological development for the betterment of humanity.
Whenmai* began studying psychology in mid-2019. She looked forward to traveling to college to have a lively conversation with her classmates working on new ideas.
However, when her in-person tutorials were exchanged for a Zoom meeting in 2020, her excitement turned into horror.
“People don’t switch cameras. They have their names displayed,” says Mai. “It’s very lonely and very isolated. If you’re struggling with questions, then no one will talk.”
The auditorium, once full of students, was emptied in favor of pre-recorded lectures, Mai said. Even the lab demonstrations have been replaced by a lively, undirected Zoom breakout room.
Mai sat through an online class who fell silent mid-hour time slot as the instructor sued a grid of faceless viewer names to engage in simple questions.
“No one spoke,” she says. “It’s so annoying, it hurts so much, you just want to go out.”
As soon as she graduated, Mai moved to Hobart to study medicine. The lockdown was fading memory and she was expecting a packed campus.
But apart from her medication classmates, she says it was abandoned – it remains two years later.
“I had this very naive vision, ‘Oh, wow, I’m going to meet a lot of students from many different places.” [but] Many students don’t attend just because they have other work or life commitments,” she says.
Australian students like MAI enroll in college in the hopes of experiences that many facilities no longer offer. They imagine themselves in time and space exploring big ideas with their peers and teachers, share vibrant discussions and share their path to becoming independent adults.
Those who can’t afford to spend the whole week on campus or are not given the option of in-person classes are worried that they are missing out. High quality education While increasing fees are being charged.
Students under financial pressure cut classes and picked up more jobs. The result is a malicious cycle of lower campus attendance, according to students. Few students will be taking part in the class in person, and attending classes is even less attractive and there will be fewer face-to-face opportunities for universities as they do not appear.
Like Mai, many people ask themselves: “What is the point of going to campus?”
AAccording to Dr. Thuc Bao Huynh, a researcher at the Center for Youth Policy and Education Practice at Monash University, Ustralian’s expectations for university life go back to research ideals before the 1980s, before the 1980s.
“If someone was a student, they wouldn’t actually do that much except they were students,” he says. “That’s not the case anymore.”
The myth of campus life opposes the modern reality where increasingly fewer students have the luxury of their own research and social life, their primary responsibility. Since the 1990s, the number of Australians from a wider background has increased. Costs of living are accelerating this trend, Huynh said it forces more students to treat the university as a part-time commitment.
Those who can’t afford to spend the whole week on campus, or who don’t have in-person classes on the course, are worried that they are being charged a growing number of fees, rather than overlooking a quality education. Photo: Agenzia Sintesi/Alamy
“Being a student is 1740532059 I mashed with everything else that young people are experiencing,” Huyn says. “That’s another thing they have to deal with.”
Classmates at Jed Brockhouse who struggled to work juggle college and were given the option to do coursework online will not be able to come to campus at Latrobe University in North Melbourne.
“If you know you don’t need to be there, why do you sit in class for two hours, fit in an hour of traffic?” he says.
Sam Lane only learned how much he missed when he took a break from law classes and reached out to art history.
He says he went to university in 2019 looking for a photo of his parents’ campus life. To people. “
Lane got a glimpse into the fantasy world at the University of New South Wales Art School on Sydney’s bustling Oxford Street. His long three-hour art history class forced him and his peers to meet face to face or gave him time to tackle and discuss aesthetics and philosophy.
“You didn’t feel like you were there just to get bitten and spit out of the auditorium,” he says. “If there’s something interesting for the class, you can dig into it.”
However, once his art tutorial is over, Lane has to hurry back to the main campus of UNSW in eastern Sydney, reducing the teaching time on campus, and the professor has rushed through an impossible amount of information. Ta.
Sam says he went to university in 2019 looking for photos of campus life drawn by his parents. Photo: Lisa Marie Williams/The Gardian
“We don’t have time to chat, we don’t have time to get to know the people around you,” he says. “You’re too busy trying to get through all the content very quickly.”
Lane is now approaching the end of his degree and watching attendees get nervous with the Student Association, stopping the long-term party tradition, including Battle of the Band events.
“People want to understand what they have lost and really go back to it… [but] There’s no good time to put it [on] “There aren’t enough people on campus so they don’t get voter turnout,” he says. “I’m a little dead.”
THis tendency towards online learning reflects wider pressure. A decline in federal funding and threatened losses from international students, the main source of income, forced the university to save. At the same time, university staff teach 200,000 students more than they did a decade ago.
Kaab Qureshi, a sophomore at Australian National University in Canberra, says it’s difficult to learn in classes that have become “strange” as the university is cut and contact time condensed.
“They just want to cut costs as quickly as possible,” he says. “I think they’ve made more reputation and profitable than student involvement and support.”
Even the face-to-face class stuffing didn’t stop them from finding the community they wanted for those who could afford to stroll around campus.
Kristy Sauw, a classmate at ANU in Qureshi, says his first year in college wasn’t good. After moving from Wagga Wagga High School to the on-campus residential hall, it was easy for her to make friends and go to classes in person.
“We made a lot of friends in our philosophy tutorials because we considered it an hour to yap. It was really fun,” she says. “As much as we focus on what we’re actually talking about, we’ve also become bonded and talked about random topics.”
Qureshi spent extra money to live in the residential hall for his first year, but the
Sported video game releases are often low-key. New versions come out every year, but apart from character updates and gameplay tweaks, not much changes from edition to edition. Unlike Grand Theft Auto diehards, sports game fans don’t plan midnight release parties.
But EA Sports College Football 25, which launches worldwide on July 19, isn’t your typical game. It might just be the most anticipated sports video game ever in the U.S. To understand why, we need to go back to the beginning.
EA Sports has started making college football video games Released for the Sega Genesis in 1993Other studios dabbled in college football, but by the late 2000s, EA Sports’ franchise, NCAA Football, had established itself as the market leader. The games were well received critically and commercially, and the final version, NCAA 14, was released in 2013. It is reported that about 1.5 million units were sold..
But the NCAA Football franchise had a problem that had nothing to do with critics or consumers: the court. (The terminology surrounding the game can be confusing to those who aren’t fans of college sports. The NCAA is the primary governing body for college sports in the United States; the NCAA Football franchise takes its name from this organization.)
Franchises like Madden, NBA2K and EA Sports FC have negotiated rights with various athletic associations as well as professional leagues to allow their teams and athletes to feature in their games, but college students are not defined as professional athletes, and NCAA institutional policy in the 2010s prohibited players from receiving financial compensation for their abilities.
So while previous NCAA Football releases have included actual teams like the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Florida Gators, the athletes were simply known as QB #7 or RB #21 rather than by their real names.
But in NCAA Football 2009, for example, you didn’t have to be Hercule Poirot to realize that QB #15 had the same height, weight, hair color, and skill attributes as Tim Tebow, the actual quarterback for the Florida Gators.
Athletes have noticed too: In July 2009, former UCLA basketball star Ed O’Bannon led a class action lawsuit by college athletes alleging that NCAA organizations, EA Sports, and College Licensing Companies had illegally used their likenesses without compensation.
Until now. In February 2021, EA Sports released a tweet that stunned the college football world. The game is back.
The advent of name, image and likeness rights deals has allowed EA Sports to include real-life players in the new edition. Photo: EA Sports
By 2020, it had become clear to college sports industry leaders that the NCAA’s strict policy of forbidding athletes from monetizing their name, image and likeness rights would not stand up to political and legal scrutiny. In July 2021, the NCAA officially changed its policy, allowing athletes to earn revenue by appearing in commercials, promoting products on social media and, of course, appearing in video games. With a way for athletes to earn revenue from their participation, schools quickly agreed to participate in the revamped NCAA Football series. This year’s games will feature more than 11,000 athletes, real players.
These events are meant to build bridges between the various groups that make up the College Football 25 community, from new fans to those nearing 40-year-olds who remember previous editions of the franchise. If you ever wonder why a coworker booked a last-minute vacation or was slow to respond to Slack, maybe they have their eyes on leading North Texas to new heights. Dynasty ModeThere are closeted gamers and NCAA die-hard fans who haven’t picked up a controller since the game was discontinued in 2014. But the passion for the game remains, with more than 120,000 people Fictional National Championship Streaming on Twitch during the pandemic.
That deep love for the series extends to the people making the game: EA Sports production director Christian McLeod said in June that the entire development process “has been a labor of love for the whole team.”
The project is especially rewarding for McCloud, who took an unconventional career path. A self-described “super fan” of college video games since the early 1990s, McCloud originally worked as a chemical engineer and wrote about sports video games on the side. A developer discovered his work and eventually contacted him to join the NCAA football team as a designer. Other key players on the development and design side of the project also came from outside the games industry.
“I really believe that if you’re really passionate about something, especially in the games industry, you should bring that passion to your work,” MacLeod says. “We can teach you how to be a designer. We can teach you how to be a producer. But you can’t teach passion.”
That passion is what helped bring the game back to life. When the series was canceled, a group of fans started a mod called College Football Revamped to keep the PC version of the game updated. While other game studios would have tried to sue and kill the project, EA instead hired several people from the Revamped team to help create College Football 25.
The new edition isn’t just for fans in the US: for the first time, fans outside of North America can easily play the game without worry. About region-locked hardware.
College Football 25 will be the first in the series to be released worldwide. Photo: EA Sports
One such avid fan is Ben Parker from Bishop’s Stortford, England, who told me he first discovered American football through the Madden series.
“I’ve always been a big soccer fan, but Madden showed me that American football is so much more than I ever imagined. It’s like a human version of chess and I found it fascinating,” Parker said.
While following the NFL, Parker became aware of the college game. “I decided to buy a copy of the 2006 Rose Bowl on eBay. That year, Vince Young, Reggie Bush and Keith Jackson were the announcers and the Rose Bowl was perfectly staged. Even though it had been months since the game itself, it was so incredibly dramatic to watch and I thought, ‘I want to know more about this sport.'”
Parker picked up an imported version of NCAA 2006 on eBay and played it religiously, and he and many other Europeans and South Americans I spoke to believe the video game could be another avenue to grow college football’s international audience, especially given the difficulties of watching live broadcasts outside the U.S.
Industry analysts expect the Madden series to outsell NCAA College Football 25 due to the NFL’s popularity both domestically and internationally, but schools and licensing industry sources are confident this year’s collegiate release will do well commercially.
It means a new generation of fans will be exposed to the passion of not just video games, but college football itself. And it might have been worth the wait.
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