That may be true, although there never was a hype or push to popularize plagiarism, which now certainly exists for AI. I can see how for certain modeling approaches, AI may promote false answers, easy to spot. Not that easy with writing. Impossible to assess student levels and progress.

That would actually be a fun thing to watch. Imagine the Wimbledon being adults at the peak of their physical being maniacally throwing tennis balls at each other.

It seems that this relies on self-reporting, doesn't it? How's your experience with that? I have the feeling that many will not admit it.

Absolutely!

That is, real-time AI generated answers based on my speech. Why? Just why? I will accept wrong answers from a human, but I am not even willing to chat to people that answer or talk (content, not translation) to me this way. What kind of stupid interaction is that?

I thought that - hoped really - when it started. But it is taking long... This slop-machine is here to stay. And it will get a whole lot worse, I'm afraid. I have even had actual video call conversations where I am fairly certain that my talking was used to generate matching answers. Super awkward!

It makes you think: why are these companies all so darn keen on everyone using AI. It's literally allowing them to pick your brain in ways that other tracking options cannot provide.

Do you think the ship is sinking? I think the majority are on board with it, only a vocal minority is not...

I just went over your Current Biology paper; that's amazing, and certainly will be part of next year's lecture content (I teach an overview course on ecology of mammals and birds of Germany - shrews were on two weeka ago)

I think we have a Sorex minutus skull in our zoological collection here. Very tiny. But fascinating creatures. Students are usually worried about shrews (and voles!). Tiny brownish fluff seems to be hard to identify.

Shrew skulls are crazy. Must be a Sorex or Neomys species...

Gran Paradiso is amazing. You can never post too many pictures.

My son immediately drew me a cup of coffee, to compensate for the loss of a piece of myself. It's a solid mug. I like that... (it seems that love for coffee is my most recognizable trait. For my birthday, my kids made me a crown with a coffee cup)

I was planning to bake an apple pie this weekend... More spice is actually a pretty brilliant idea. Wonder if it would work with quince, because my quince tree was a lot more productive than my apple trees this year.

Bill Gates will go wherever there is money to be raked in... Sometimes that is disguised as philantropy, but if there would not be a profit to be made, this man would not be there. Way too influential on subjects he never studied in depth...