Hi everyone, my name is Megan King and I’m a graduating senior this semester at UMASS Dartmouth. I’m 27 years old and I live in Boston, I work full time as a bar manager and my major is philosophy with a second concentration in political science. I hope to use my undergraduate degree to pursue a graduate degree in law. I would love to pursue a career in environmental law, or injury law, either way I hope to help people, or our planet.
For this weeks blog, since I am a philosophy major, I chose from the philosophy options, and one blog that peeked my interest was called Will AI Destroy the Academy? |: Cheating with AI. In this article, the author, who has been a philosophy professor since 1993, speaks about how cheating and plagiarism have existed since the conception of academy and language, respectively, and about the problems the “academy” or educational institutions, benefit and struggle with the ever increasing AI technology which has become exponentially available over the last 15 years, and more recently since 2023 when Chat GPT and Turnitin were introduced to the education system. Although cheating and plagiarism, according to this author, have not spiked much with the increase of AI, the concern for combatting it arises since the detection of cheating becomes a problem the more AI advances. At the same time that students and companies are gaining access to this AI, institutions and employers must be willing and able to counter it by accepting and utilizing the same measures to ensure that learning, etc. is original and not the work of AI.
As aforementioned, I am from the Boston area, and as such I have a particular proclivity for the assurance of the well-being of the New England area (not to mention their sports teams). The environmental issue I will mention here is that of the unnatural and rapid heating of, specifically, “the Gulf of Maine (which) has warmed faster than 99 percent of the global ocean”(Fisheries). This is particularly concerning, since our geographical area is warming at a greater rate than anywhere else (and if you know of or are from the area, it is not a warm climate regularly, at least year round). Climate change should be taken seriously, and I hope the Trump administration addresses these issues accordingly, and as such I hope to explore this issue and learn more in order to educate myself and others of the perils of climate change, and global warming.
Fisheries, Noaa. “Climate Change in the Northeast U.S. Shelf Ecosystem.” NOAA, www.fisheries.noaa.gov/new-england-mid-atlantic/climate/climate-change-northeast-us-shelf-ecosystem.
LaBossiere, Michael. “Will AI Destroy the Academy? I: Cheating With AI.” A Philosopher’s Blog, 27 Jan. 2025, aphilosopher.drmcl.com/2025/01/27/will-ai-destroy-the-academy-i-cheating-with-ai.
Hi Megan! Excited to meet a fellow graduating senior here at UMassD. I’m also very interested in exploring how New England is affected by climate change. A couple of years ago, I did a field research project where I measured and observed the depths of a cluster of vernal pools. It was springtime, and they should have been full, but due to lack of winter precipitation most were empty. It was disheartening to learn that many amphibians and other animals were forced to relocate. Since then I’ve been keenly aware of the precipitation patterns in our area and how our climate is changing over time.
Hi Megan!
It’s so nice to e-meet you! I appreciate that you brought up the Gulf of Maine, the issue of how much and how quickly it has been warmed is something I didn’t know specifically and only learned recently. I would be interested in learning more about what can be done, and how fast, to combat such a serious issue. Congrats on being so close to graduation, almost there!!
Hello and welcome from your ecofeminism professor!