By Sankirtana Das
For over 40 years, I’ve offered presentations on the Krishna Consciousness tradition and philosophy in college classrooms. I became friends with many of the professors, and they repeatedly invited me back to the campus every year or two. Then, about 20 years ago, some of the professors started commenting that new students didn’t quite meet the standards of an academic environment. It seemed that students were pushed ahead even without the required skills, and even when they reached college, they could hardly write a coherent sentence.
More recently, college professors have complained about students’ increasing dependence on AI. It’s one thing when students acquire skills for their profession, and then apply AI to enhance those skills. But now borderline students can deliver capable essays by doing just scant research and without any substantial knowledge of the topic.
AI should be a tool to aid students, not a substitute for their inability. The danger is when students abuse AI to attain better grades and coast along to a diploma. And the corporate world will depend more and more on this new innovation, requiring fewer employees, and the super-rich will generate bigger and bigger profits.
Another issue is the spread of data centers across the USA. Local populations are beginning to speak up about their concerns, including increased electricity costs, water sources, air and soil quality, noise pollution, and a potential decline in property values. But with close to 4000 centers, Congress and state legislatures are negligent in overseeing the safety of their constituents. These public officials have yet to examine the advantages and disadvantages of data centers or develop guidelines for constructing and operating them.
Read more: https://iskconnews.org/ai-data-centers-and-doing-the-right-thing/
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