Do AI Detectors Work? Students Face False Cheating Accusations – Bloomberg

The students most susceptible to inaccurate accusations are likely those who write in a more generic manner, either because they’re neurodivergent like Olmsted, speak English as a second language (ESL) or simply learned to use more straightforward vocabulary and a mechanical style, according to students, academics and AI developers. A 2023 study by Stanford University researchers found that AI detectors were “near-perfect” when checking essays written by US-born eighth grade students, yet they flagged more than half of the essays written by nonnative English students as AI-generated. OpenAI recently said it has refrained from releasing an AI writing detection tool in part over concerns it could negatively affect certain groups, including ESL students.

The Promise of AccessTechnology, Inequality, and the Political Economy of Hope | Books Gateway | MIT Press

Why do we keep trying to solve poverty with technology? What makes us feel that we need to learn to code—or else? In The Promise of Access, Daniel Greene argues that the problem of poverty became a problem of technology in order to manage the contradictions of a changing economy. Greene shows how the digital divide emerged as a policy problem and why simple technological solutions to complex social issues continue to appeal to politicians and professionals who should (and often do) know better.

h/t Tressiemcphd