Claire Ralph

Caltech Lecturer in Computing + Mathematical Sciences & Director Career Services. Into socio-technical design & exploring Los Angeles. D&I too. she/hers

[Caltech Alumni Association @caltechalumni]

A gift from Angela Carnegie honoring her late husband, Jesse Grodnik (BS '66), has established the Jesse Grodnik Mentorship Fund, supporting programs that connect students with alumni mentors.

Read more: https://t.co/Zr94hgzagV

[SAIR @SAIRfoundation]

The @Caltech community and SAIR are redesigning and co-organizing Mathathon: Old Problems, New Proofs.

Explore alternative proofs and clearer explanations, using AI to deepen human understanding.

More on our co-founder Terence Tao’s blog:
https://t.co/1cw7Zk2Jra

[Michael 英泉 Eisen @mbeisen]

I’m just n=1 prof at one school, though I have taught 10,000+ students in last 15 years so I have some basis for making observations. While some things - math competency - have gotten noticeably worse, my students in pre-med genetics at Cal have more and diverse knowledge than they did 15 years ago, have a better understanding of how things in the world operate, are more curious, and have bolder ideas about how they can make a difference. I’m not saying people are wrong about skills decline. But I do think they might be looking at things through too narrow a window.

[Caltech @Caltech]

Caltech has been recognized among the nation's top universities, ranking fifth in the 2027 U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges list. The placement is the Institute's largest single-year climb in more than 25 years.

Read more: https://t.co/FEaHWok2pG

[Dr Heidy Khlaaf (هايدي خلاف) @HeidyKhlaaf]

These are precisely the scenarios that I spend a significant time actually being concerned with. The adoption of unreliable, brittle, and inaccurate LLMs within safety-critical fields (e.g., defense and nuclear) is not only a concrete risk, but has catastrophic consequences.

[Dr Heidy Khlaaf (هايدي خلاف) @HeidyKhlaaf]

We are in a peak age of scientific fraud and illiteracy. Completely fabricated claims and unsubstantiated numbers about extinction risks. "Someone told me that ..." without a shred of evidence being provided. Media uncritically blasting these claims and triggering mass psychosis.

[Alex Veremeyenko @alex_verem]

MIT published a brutally honest report on what AI is doing to students.

A committee of professors and students spent five months studying how AI changed learning on campus, and the findings read like a warning to every university on the planet.

Study groups are disappearing. Office hours are emptying out. Problem sets and take-home exams no longer prove anything, because AI can produce credible solutions to almost any written assignment in the undergraduate curriculum. Students who lean on chatbots lose mastery and confidence, and some slip into what the report calls cognitive surrender, reaching for AI at the first hint of struggle.

The numbers are rough. 46 percent of surveyed MIT undergrads use LLMs daily. 90 percent worry about their own overreliance. Undergrads who feel AI makes them replaceable now outnumber those who feel it makes them capable.

The committee's answer surprised me. They refused to fight AI with surveillance. The report calls AI detectors unreliable, says lockdown browsers feel like spying, and warns that policing students builds a classroom atmosphere of mutual distrust.

Instead, MIT wants to rebuild education around the things AI can't replace. That means oral exams, semester portfolios, in-person project work, and a required social component in every subject. The report even floats the idea of rethinking grades entirely, since without a GPA to optimize, much of the incentive to cheat with AI evaporates.

The committee warns professors against replacing undergrad research assistants with AI agents just because they're cheaper, because a university exists to grow people, not output.

The most famous tech school on earth admitted the machines broke its way of teaching. Its answer is more humans, not more software.

[Los Angeles Times Pitchbot @LAHumanBot]

Political Analysis | Was the selection of Tim Walz the reason you didn't receive a "Shake Alert" on your phone following Tuesday evening's Kern County earthquake? It's complicated.

[Ida Bae Wells @nhannahjones]

My freshman year of college, after never having earned less than a B my entire life, I nearly flunked out, earning 3 Fs, a B and C. I was depressed and stopped going to class. I was Black and working class at an elite white school. I missed home. I missed family. I was going through something that had nothing to do with my academic abilities, work ethic or ambition. Human beings struggle. This rugged individualism culture, this scarcity mentality, this willingness to write off struggling people as unworthy is toxic and hurts all of us. If an empathetic educator, Dean Flint-Hamilton, hadn’t given me a shot to redeem myself, my life would have been very different. She took a chance on me because she saw me as a whole human being. I was determined not to betray her trust in me. We can do better, y’all, with our young people — with all people. We truly can.

[Adam Johnson @adamjohnsonCHI]

articles about Claudine Gay and her various "scandals" were top 5 featured stories on the New York Times homepage Dec 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 22, 25 and her firing is the now their top story. There is simply no way this is proportionate, sober or reasonable coverage

[NYTPitchbot @DougJBalloon]

My 4-year-old was reading a 2001 paper of Claudine Gay, when he turned to me gravely and asked "Daddy, why did president Gay have to resign?" And when I told him "Because Christopher Rufo is now the assignment editor for the New York Times," he started crying.

[Muted. Argue with yourself. @___inCANdescent]

So it’s been a recent belief that a big contributor to the gender pay gap is that women tend to negotiate salaries less. Now there’s a new study that says women do negotiate…but get told no.

[Dr. Monica Cox @DrMonicaCox]

I spoke w/ someone who referred to people who don't stand up against workplace wrongs as murky middles.

The majority of people we encounter at work are neither extremely problematic or inspirational.

Those murky middles have the potential to make spaces toxic though.

[pjlo @BlackCatrachoBK]

“UNM professor awarded $1.5 million grant to put intersectionality first”: congratulations to my masters thesis advisor ⁦⁦@UNM⁩ Dr. Nancy López! https://t.co/MdTYhbknpE

[Claire Ralph @clairecatralph]

@lpachter Maybe a second? It was enough time for both Jason and I to grab our phones, look at each other confused, and then feel it

[Claire Ralph @clairecatralph]

Heard the shake alert and THEN felt the quake. First time for me experiencing the early warning system working. So impressed with all the people who created the system #quake #usgs

[Caltech Quake Bot @CaltechQuake]

#AutoEQ A magnitude 5.0 (MI) #earthquake has occurred 4 mi SE of Ojai, CA at 14:41 PDT Aug 20, 2023 [2023-08-20 21:41 UTC]. #SCSN has not yet confirmed this event. For more info visit https://t.co/TVLVZpLADe

[MMitchell @mmitchell_ai]

Would love to see regulators welcome all of these amazing women to the table, in order to understand how to regulate AI. Don't be scared to learn, welcome all of them -- they know what they're talking about!

[Lorena O'Neil @lorenaoneil]

There are some stories that you know will stay with you for a very long time, and this is one of them. Had the honor of profiling these five women who have been warning about AI risks before you'd ever heard of ChatGPT. My latest for @RollingStone https://t.co/nt6kHaWoDD

[Jathan Sadowski @jathansadowski]

https://t.co/LBGLDO3RkQ

[Claire Ralph @clairecatralph]

@collopy You live life so beautifully