AKA Review– January 6, 2023

From University World News:
Pressure on rankings may lead to a more meaningful exercise
By Ellen Hazelkorn
Several recent developments are shaking the college ranking “industry”: law-school boycotts, the departure of China and Russia from major international rankings, and the growth of single-focus rankings that attempt to measure academic freedom, institutional integrity, ROI, social mobility, and sustainability. Although historically the big ranking publications such as U.S. News & World Report quickly co-opt such new metrics, their rapidly increasing number and single-minded focus may cause the death of a thousand cuts for the ranking giants. Read this article

From The New York Times Magazine:
An A.I. Pioneer on What We Should Really Fear
By David Marchese
Yejin Choi, computer scientist and recent McArthur Fellow, looks at how one might develop common sense and ethical reasoning in A.I. In this witty interview, she punctures some of the hype and fear that surrounds A.I.’s potential, particularly in the wake of ChatGPT and DALL-E 2. “You’d be surprised how A.I. struggles with basic common sense,” she notes, as well as with “value pluralism, the fact that value is not singular.” She also observes that it is terrible at understanding New Yorker cartoons: “basically, even the fanciest A.I. today cannot really decipher what’s going on in New Yorker captions.” Read this article

From Inside Higher Education:
The Forces That Are Shaping the Future of Higher Education
By Steven Mintz
UT Austin professor Steven Mintz urges looking at long-term shifts in the higher education landscape rather than flashy headlines that feed the 24-hour news cycle. He argues that mounting competition, a rush to exploit new markets, fraught politics, the crisis of the humanities, increasing internal campus acrimony and animosity, and constraints on the size of such high demand programs as nursing and engineering are the real factors that will define higher education in the coming years. Read this article

From WIRED:
You Don’t Need to Fear a World of 8 Billion Humans
By Matt Reynolds
When the world’s eight billionth person was born this past November, many in the news reported concern about the growing global population and its impact on climate change. However, emissions are a consequence of consumption levels, not just population: each person in the U.S. produces 15 metric tons of CO2 annually compared to the average 30 kg of CO2 by those living, for instance, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The author argues that while the Earth has a capacity for more people, the future is dependent on what those alive now are prepared to do to ensure a stable planet for the next billion. Read this article

From Yale University Press:
Why the Museum Matters
By Daniel H. Weiss
President of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Daniel Weiss discusses the origins and history of art museums, their role and values, and steps to take for museums to achieve a better future, one in which they serve a greater public while continuing to be stewards of culture and places of discovery and inspiration. He emphasizes the importance of museums to society and democracy and suggests that they continue to become more universalist in outlook and approach. Further information about this book here