QuickBites: A Forum for Urgent News
ChatGPT: Help or Hype?
Feb 20, 2023 @ 5pm
Should we trust ChatGPT? Will critical thinking and writing skills be strengthened or atrophy with its promotion or use? Watch as Sara West (Professional & Technical Writing) and Roxana Marachi (Teacher Ed) discussed this new “Generative AI” tool, what it can and can’t do, and emerging controversies around our use of the tool and its use of us as data.
Twitter: Democracy or Poison Pill?
Dec 13, 2022 @ 5pm
Now that Elon Musk owns Twitter, what will happen to this social media platform and why does it matter for democracy? Watch Étienne Brown (Philosophy) and Matt Cabot (Journalism and Mass Communications) take on this up-to-the minute news in an engaging discussion about social media’s growing power, the fate and limits of freedom of expression, and the reasons why the Musk takeover affects everyone, not just Twitter users. Contrary to the rules of Vegas, what happens on Twitter sometimes doesn't stay on Twitter.
Exploring Deep Space
February 1, 2022 @ 6pm
Ali Guarneros Luna (Senior NASA aerospace engineer) and Michael Kauffman (Professor of Astronomy) host an exciting conversation about the launch of the Webb Space Telescope and all of its possibilities. One million kilometers from Earth and intended to “probe the atmospheres of potentially habitable exoplanets, peer back in time at galaxies that formed during the early years of the universe, and investigate Solar System moons that may have some form of life in their subsurface oceans” (according to Passant Rabie, Inverse). Watch this lively conversation (recorded from our live-streamed event) about what's out there and how we managed such innovative exploration into space!
The Facebook Papers
November 17, 2021 @ 5pm
Étienne Brown (Philosophy) and Chelsea Thompto (Digital Media Art) talk about the New York Times Facebook Papers and what this whistleblower reveals about how Facebook allows content that seriously affects body image in teens, promotes hateful content, spreads election disinformation, and many other dilemmas in many countries, including the U.S. and India, specifically on Instagram and WhatsApp. Watch this lively conversation (recorded from our live-streamed event) about this social media giant and how these revelations may affect you and your friends.
