Introduction Issue 2: Humanities in the time of ChatGPT and other forms of AI

Introduction to this Special Issue on Artificial Intelligence and Pedagogy

A survey of proximal sensilla associated with denticle subrows on scorpion pedipalp fingers (Arachnida: Scorpiones), with observations on scorpion fluorescence

Sensilla on the dentate margins of scorpion pedipalp fingers, associated with denticle subrows or terminal denticles, were surveyed by white light, UV fluorescence and scanning electron microscopy. A total of 163 species belonging to 103 genera from 19 families were examined, representing all major phylogenetic lineages in the order. In the majority of species (141/152) with dentition organized into linear subrows of median denticles, a small socketed sensillum with a short shaft was observed at the proximal terminus of each subrow, termed a ‘subrow proximal sensilla’ (SPS). With few exceptions, SPS were non-fluorescent (‘Type N’) in buthids, and fluorescent (‘Type F’) in non-buthids. SPS were present in buthids, chactoid families, and vaejovids; they were absent in Pseudochactas, bothriurids and scorpionoid families. Subterminal sensilla (STS) were found proximal to terminal denticles. Buthid fingers typically had two pairs of Type N STS, a proximal filiform pair and a distal spatulate pair, herein termed ‘Cruz-Armas sensilla’ after their discoverers; in a minority of species, the spatulate pair was missing. Non-buthid fingers typically had a single Type F STS, similar to Type F SPS. Type N sensilla studied here may be mechanoreceptive ‘macrosetae’, and Type F sensilla chemo-/mechanoreceptive ‘microsetae’, both specialized for detecting close-contact stimuli. In order to correctly interpret fluorescence images of sensilla, we reviewed the optics of UV excitation and fluorescence emission in scorpion cuticle. We propose a dielectric waveguide model of the cuticle, in which fluorescence emitted in the hyaline exocuticle is trapped by total internal reflection, and is able to propagate tangential to the surface. We suggest that this phenomenon could enhance topographic contrast of small surface features in fluorescence imaging, and increase the efficiency of UV fluorescence detection by ocular or extraocular photoreceptors. We observed highly effective block of UV light by the cuticle, and strong UV attenuation by non-fluorescent endocuticle. Scorpion cuticle may serve a dual role, as a protective sunscreen and as a UV wavelength converter and fluorescence collector for photoreceptors

Catastrophe of War

The paper selects the novel Palpasa Café (2005) by Nepali author Narayan Wagle to highlight the factors that contributed to the Maoist insurgency and counter-insurgency that punctured the Nepali consciousness. It will also critique Eurocentric trauma theory for diminishing the South Asian perspectives of trauma (incidents) from the main discourse of trauma theory. In addition, the paper will explore the detrimental impacts of war and conflict as experienced by Nepalese cops and civilians together, and its long-lasting imprint on their psyche as manifested in different forms of trauma in the text. The dissemination of the \u27inarticulable trauma\u27 concept into something comprehensible and representable is promulgated by Wagle in the Nepali context. Nepal has experienced extensive exposure to militarised warfare, bloodshed, conflict of power, and environmental catastrophe in the myriads of forms that engender the rise of literature on trauma. It has witnessed the repugnance of a long-decade-continued Civil War (1996-2006) between Maoists and the Monarch which wreaked havoc on the country and its people

An Affirmation of Coexistence between Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Human Intelligence (HI): An Inquiry into the Structure of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel, Klara and the Sun

A narrative reflective of the perils and promises of automation entering the subjective realm of humankind, Kazuo Ishiguro’s latest novel, Klara and the Sun, confronts us with the notion of coexistence between artificial intelligence (AF) and human intelligence (HF) by uncovering a robust structure arising from the contestation amidst a host of binaries: Human versus machine, AI versus HI, self versus the other, science versus nature, and the list goes on. Although a vast majority of analytical inquiries into this novel uncover the incoherence of human identity and consciousness in the society deeply invested in affordances of the fifth industrial revolution, a structuralist intervention into the narrative brings into visibility the fact that AI and artificial friends (AFs), regardless of their claim to universal decipherability, ultimately remain unable to plumb the depth of human heart. In this novel, Ishiguro confirms that the unpredictable vagaries and volatility of the human heart are eternally indecipherable to AI and AFs. Human nature is hieroglyphic to AI. For example, Klara’s failure to rightly assess the future course of Josie and Rick\u27s romantic affinity serves as demonstrative textual evidence. Taken on its terms, the successive navigation of these binary oppositions leads to identifying the narrative structure wherein the coexistence between AI and HI achieves its endorsement. These twin purposes of the narrative—the unconquerability of the human heart by AI and the coexistence between AI and HI—ascend to the centrality of meaning, governing other binaries and producing a compelling rendition of the structure

The Coming Wave by Mustafa Suleyman: A Review

A Review of Mustafa Suleyman\u27s The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the 21st Century’s Greatest Dilemma (NY: Crown, 2023)

20240105: Athletic Player Files List, 1951-2011

These items include materials from the Department of Athletics at Marshall University from 1951-2011. Items were received sometime prior to 2013. This is a list of each athletic member across all sports that we have information for. Information within the folders could be as little as one headshot, a single piece of paper, or their athletic profile application. Please download the finding aid for a full list of contents in this specific collection

How Fears of AI in the Classroom Reflect Anxieties about Choosing Sophistry over True Knowledge in the American Education System

The rise of ChatGPT has educators across the United States of America worried about scholastic integrity like never before. This paper argues, however, that underneath this initial concern lies an even greater one, that the education system in the United States so closely resembles the style of teaching used by the sophists in Ancient Greece that it has ultimately failed to cultivate critical thinking skills in America’s youth, so much so that ChatGPT has become a far greater issue than it ever needed to be. The practice of ‘teaching to the test’ and the commodification of education, which is akin to the sophists’ custom of instructing the youth of Athens on how to win debates rather than seek true knowledge and charging a high price to do so, has created an education system where true knowledge is no longer the goal. Thus, the real worry about ChatGPT lies not in students circumventing the processes of knowledge, but in educators being forced to recognize the failure to foster such a process in the first place

AI Meets AI: ChatGPT as a Pedagogical Tool to Teach American Indian History

Our paper illustrates how we used Artificial Intelligence to teach the tools of ethnohistory and highlight American Indian voices in our classrooms. It overviews our integration of ChatGPT in both survey and upper-level history courses at two different institutions: a small liberal arts college in the Midwest and a regional-comprehensive university in Texas. Though it acknowledges the benefits and pitfalls of using ChatGPT to teach Native American history, this article emphasizes the pedagogical value of large language models (LLMs) for student engagement and analytical thinking through a variety of critical review, peer review, and group annotation assessments; this included analyses of ChatGPT produced book reviews and textbook chapter summaries. Consequently, our findings illustrate that large language model-generated projects encourages students to think critically about the perpetuation of dominant, Eurocentric historical narratives and challenges students to identify and deconstruct the problematic ways that Native Americans and other minority groups in American history are approached in both academic and non-academic settings. Our paper provides a template that instructors can apply to motivate student inquiry in the history of marginalized groups. In so doing, our goal is to teach students and educators in the Humanities how to use this new technology to supplement rather than subvert the learning process

ChatGPT and Death of an Author

The proposed piece seeks to critically explore pedagogical implication of ChatGPT, especially on students’ capacities to author a text. The piece suggests that increased reliance on the ChatGPT, while provide short term solution to produce a text, in the long term it is likely to lead to ‘death of an author’. Here the usage of the phrase is a twist to earlier usage by Barthes- which refers to ‘death of an author’ where once the text is written, it gets re-created in readers’ reception and through interpretive act and imagination. The overarching argument of the paper emphasizes that technology is not neutral, especially in a context where its opacity has risen concerns about surveillance, control, and manipulation of human behavior, and therefore its infiltration in education begs critical questioning and sensitive e-value-ation. The discussion argues that rise of AI in education should be checked and not embraced uncritically, but rather it should be critically scrutinized, debated, and scaffolded through critical theoretical, pedagogical, and ethical references to counter its hegemonic and de-humanization of learning. For empirical part, the analysis draws upon reflections generated through a focus group discussion with four undergraduate students enrolled in a Bachelors degree in Computer Science who employed use of ChatGPT in preparing their speeches in context of a humanities course. The students found ChatGPT useful in terms of composing a text/speech and saving time and efforts. However, they realized that its use caused them loss of authentic learning, imagination and suppressed self’s voice. Based on the analysis, the piece shares further insights into pedagogic implications, and suggest a pedagogical scaffolding using critical pedagogical references of relationship between technology and human/learners’ values, distinction between information, knowledge, and wisdom, application and experiential learning references, and praxis in learning

From Polygraphs to Truth Machines: Artificial Intelligence in Lie Detection

The proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI)-enhanced lie detection tools in business, educational, community, and governmental contexts signals a new era of deception detection. With these AI developments, collections of intimate biometric information such as facial and retinal data, keystroke patterns, brain scans, and physiological changes in the cardiovascular system are combined with personal profiles to produce analyses of a subject’s supposed veracity. This article explores some early lie detection technologies (such as the polygraph) and discusses the influences that lie detection initiatives have had in human interactions through the decades. It addresses the empirical issues of whether specific AI technologies have the capability of recognizing lying along with the related cultural concerns involving the proliferation of lie detection implementations. It analyzes the appropriateness of using invasive and often unreliable new AI methodologies for lie detection in comparison with previous methods such as the polygraph. The article also examines ethical and cultural concerns involving the obtaining and analyzing of such intimate data. It analyzes the subordinate statuses of the human subjects of lie detection as well as issues of consent for those that are faced with complex and often opaque systems. Whatever the answers to questions about reliability and mental privacy, many AI-enabled lie detection technologies are currently being used in security and police procedures, employment interviewing, and as part of anti-cheating educational initiatives