

Edward Howell
13.4K posts

@TheEdwardHowell
Lecturer @UniofOxford | Author of a NEW BOOK: ‘A New Axis of Upheaval: North Korea, Russia, China, Iran’ | Organist | Views my own











There were talkers that China changed Rubio’s Chinese name translation from 卢比奥 to 鲁比奥 to subtly lift its sanctions against him. While it sounded fun, it’s NOT TRUE! There’re multiple variations of Rubio’s translation back in 2020: including 卢比奥, 鲁比奥, and even 卢比欧!



The case for an Asian NATO | @TheEdwardHowell engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the-c…


One of the most distinct markers of actual undergraduate writing: the unspecified pronoun. Even the best writers do this at least once in every essay.


I must confess to having underestimated Keir Starmer. Thumped in Thursday’s elections, this weekend he turns to Gordon Brown and Harriet Harman to rejuvenate his government with young, fresh blood. A stroke of pure genius. I foresee a second Starmer landslide come the next general election. Respect, sir.




🚨 University professors have been saying AI is completely destroying learning and that we'll soon have an AI-powered, semi-illiterate workforce. Here's a glimpse into the educational apocalypse: "Sarah, a freshman at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario, said she first used ChatGPT to cheat during the spring semester of her final year of high school. (...) After getting acquainted with the chatbot, Sarah used it for all her classes: Indigenous studies, law, English, and a “hippie farming class” called Green Industries. “My grades were amazing,” she said. “It changed my life.” Sarah continued to use AI when she started college this past fall. Why wouldn’t she? Rarely did she sit in class and not see other students’ laptops open to ChatGPT. Toward the end of the semester, she began to think she might be dependent on the website. She already considered herself addicted to TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and Reddit, where she writes under the username maybeimnotsmart. “I spend so much time on TikTok,” she said. “Hours and hours, until my eyes start hurting, which makes it hard to plan and do my schoolwork. With ChatGPT, I can write an essay in two hours that normally takes 12.” - "By November, Williams estimated that at least half of his students were using AI to write their papers. Attempts at accountability were pointless. Williams had no faith in AI detectors, and the professor teaching the class instructed him not to fail individual papers, even the clearly AI-smoothed ones. “Every time I brought it up with the professor, I got the sense he was underestimating the power of ChatGPT, and the departmental stance was, ‘Well, it’s a slippery slope, and we can’t really prove they’re using AI,’” Williams said. “I was told to grade based on what the essay would’ve gotten if it were a ‘true attempt at a paper.’ So I was grading people on their ability to use ChatGPT.” - AI in education is a serious topic, and many schools and universities are blindly jumping into the "AI-first" wave without considering short and long-term consequences. It would be great to hear more from teachers and educators to understand potential solutions. This might be a great opportunity for rethinking the education system and how students are assessed. - 👉 Link to the full article below. 👉 To learn more about AI's legal and ethical challenges, join my newsletter's 94,700+ subscribers (link below).


I was invited to speak at a debate at @OxfordUnion on the motion: “This House Would Rather go to War with Russia than Lose Ukraine.” I accepted and was due to speak for the motion. THREAD 1/4