The Free

thefreeonline 1 Feb, 2023 by Banned News Agency

A scandal has emerged after a diploma thesis was passed despite being written by the AI-powered chatbot.

READ MORE: ChatGPT maker outsourced work to low-paid Africans – TIME

The Russian State University for the Humanities (RGGU) has called for restricted access to ChatGPT after a student successfully presented a diploma thesis written by the program.

The AI-powered bot has garnered increasingly widespread attention for its text generation abilities. 

The scandal unfolded after a graduate student with the university took to Twitter to share his experience of using ChatGPT to write his diploma thesis on management.

In a lengthy thread, the student explained how he had circumvented text length restrictions, also sharing insights into how to use the program to get a coherent text.

The thesis was successfully presented at the university. The student admitted that he received only a minimal passing grade, blaming that result on other factors, namely laughing at the purportedly sloppy presentations by other graduates.

All in all, it took the student around 23 hours to ‘write’ his thesis, compared to several weeks spent by his fellow students on their work, according to the thread.

‘Ask Oli’ chatbot starts AI revolution in children’s healthcare

The stunt has received a mixed reception from the Twitter crowd. Some have praised the student for his ingenuity, while others have accused him of cheating.

Several users were so enraged by the trick that they wrote complaints to the RGGU and the Russian Education Ministry, calling on officials to investigate and annul the thesis altogether.

READ MORE: Schools fear AI takeover

The university was quick to condemn the student, urging the authorities to restrict access to ChatGPT for educational facilities. It was not immediately clear how exactly the RGGU seeks to achieve that, given that ChatGPT’s developers have already restricted access to the chat bot for Russian users. 

“If decades ago the main problem for universities was plagiarism and unscrupulous borrowing, and this problem was successfully solved, now the educational community is facing a new challenge associated with the use of neural networks and artificial intelligence in scientific and educational activities.

Russian and foreign experts have expressed concerns about this issue, and finding a worthy solution is a primary task for the scientific community,” the university told Russian media in a statement. 

In separate comments, the RGGU vowed to carry out additional “analysis” of the thesis, both internally and with the involvement of the scientific community.

At the same time, the deputy head of the State Duma Committee on Science and Higher Education, Aleksandr Mazhuga, urged the university not to annul the thesis, arguing that it has already passed the presentation. 

“My opinion is that the result cannot be annulled. But this is a very important signal for our educational community that we need to carefully participate in the process of writing our students’ theses,” Mazhuga told Gazeta.ru.

thefreeonline Feb 1, 2023 by OffGuardian .

Coronavirus Fact-Check #17: Masks STILL Don’t Work They’re trying to bring mask mandates back – but a new study says masks do exactly what they’ve always done: Nothing.

You can read all our previous Covid fact-checks here.

Both the US and UK have seen the (attempted) re-introduction of facemask mandates amid “surging Covid cases” in the New Year.

On January 9th, ABC news headlined:–

More US schools institute mask mandates as COVID cases rise

Reporting that public schools in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Michigan were re-introducing mask mandates. That follows late-December mandates imposed in Oakland and Iowa, among others.

It’s not much different in the UK, where there have been no mandates issued, but “experts” are “urging” people to wear masks to “limit the spread of flu, Covid and Scarlet Fever”, according to the Daily Mail. The OKHSA issued “guidance”, as they are wont to do.

Meanwhile, the Guardian is back to publishing manipulative op-eds attempting to “end the culture war” on masks, and turning the whole issue into nothing but a virtue signal.

All of this is, of course, pure propaganda that ignores actual science in favour “The Science^TM“.

Masks don’t work, that was our 6th Covid Fact-check, back in June of 2020.

For over two years we’ve been publishing piles of evidence that face masks not only do nothing to prevent the spread of respiratory viruses but are actually harmful in myriad ways.

We really don’t want to have to go over all the old research papers again…

…and we don’t have to, because there’s a new one.

On January 30th the Cochrane Library published an updated literature review on facemasks from Dr Tom Jefferson et al..

On cloth masks, a review of a dozen studies found:

Wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of influenza‐like illness (ILI)/COVID‐19 like illness compared to not wearing

masks […] Wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of laboratory‐confirmed influenza/SARS‐CoV‐2 compared to not wearing masks…

There you go. Maybe wear that quote on a lanyard instead of a mask this year.

You can read all our previous Covid fact-checks here.

from thefreeonline on 2nd Feb 2023 by The Bristol Activist

frpm The Bristol Activist January 31, 2023 James Ward Court, news, Top Story Leave a comment

A High Court judge has dismissed the appeal of climate campaigners and ruled that Bristol Airport expansion can go ahead.  

Bristol Airport Action Network (BAAN) challenged the airport’s expansion plans in the High Court following their approval by planning inspectors at an inquiry in 2021. BAAN argued that the inspectors’ decision to discount climate change from their decision was legally wrong. 

However, in an announcement published today (January 31) Lord Justice Lane ruled that the inspectors’ decision was valid and that the expansion should proceed. 

Responses from campaigners 

The decision comes as a blow to BAAN who have campaigned to stop Bristol Airport expansion since plans for expansion were announced in 2018. There were tears amongst the members of BAAN and their supporters as news of the judge’s ruling broke to those waiting outside the courthouse. 

Hundreds gathered outside Bristol Civil Justice Centre, where the hearing was held in November, and cries of “shame” echoed out when the verdict was shared. 

Speaking for BAAN outside the courthouse, Steve Clarke said: ‘The Government has policies in place which are designed to encourage the growth of airports and the number of people wanting to fly. This shows a total disregard for the climate emergency we are in.

‘In addition, this case shows that no one is taking responsibility for the extra carbon emissions from the 2 million additional passengers because they will not have been taken into account at any stage of the process either locally or nationally.

The Planning Inspectors who presided over the Inquiry stated that the responsibility lay with national Government however the Secretary of State has chosen not to consider the impact of the additional carbon; either at Bristol or other regional airport.

‘The end result of this decision is that the overwhelming voices of opposition of local people and their elected representatives have been ignored.  This is despite the chaos that will be caused locally through extra traffic congestion, noise and air pollution and the fact that the airport is already the biggest carbon emitter in the region.’

Following speeches from campaigners, protesters from XR Youth Bristol sat in front of the courthouse as fake blood was poured over their heads.

How did we get here? 

Thousands of local people signed petitions against the expansion and objected to the original planning application, outnumbering messages of support many times over. 

Bristol Airport’s planning application to expand from 10 million to 12 million passengers a year initially went before North Somerset Council in February 2020. Councillors voted against expansion, many giving as their reason that airport expansion is incompatible with efforts to tackle the climate crisis. 

Since then, further planning applications have been objected to, and the West of England Combined Authority and Bristol City Council joined North Somerset in formally objecting to expansion, although Bristol mayor Marvin Rees has always spoken in favour of the scheme. 

Continue reading “Plane Wrong: Bristol Airport Expansion upheld in new Blow to Campaigners”