@CoachDanGo it's fun to party for 5 years tho -- far from useless! well, the __degree__ is different than the social experience, you're right in that...
You know what? AI writing IS NOT poisoning academia.
The sick incentives poisoned it decades ago. AI is just making everyone do what they are told they should do to succeed: make the number go up.
And it also worked for 2-3 years. Now I already see the time window closing. All venues are DROWNING in submissions. Of course, the crappy venues don't have to even care, they'll just publish everything.
I've also been leaning heavily on Claude Code lately for most of my work. Great tool. Teaches me a lot. But also makes a ton of judgment mistakes, which I'm most likely capable of catching, but someone who's just getting started most likely not.
It's a miracle maker. But it won't save you.
In the end, it all boils down to just managing yourself. Putting enough time on the right things. Learning the new tools, reading the research, developing your thinking, taking the time to write down your thoughts (not just work, I literally mean being reflective of your life and work and days), and trying to focus on good kind of problems. Not maybe just the kind that "get published" but that might even have a good impact on the world.
( If you want a quickstart to my philosophy on that front... well you know where to find it: https://t.co/GagGgjufQK )
This ^ is a GREAT pointer to a less-discussed direction imo. Everyone is pretending the function of academia (higher edu), work, etc is just "get more done" or "learn as efficiently as possible"
There's a human element in all this. A purpose for life, as a kind of byproduct of doing all that. And it's largely ignored in the discourse.
@AndieWinnipeg If my university doesn't explicitly ban it, why would I care what it says?
All I care about is the result.
Not saying AI is always making it better, but it's really the only thing I optimise for with grant applications.
I create much better research and am much more productive with LLMs, but lose the sense of discovery and some deeper ownership.
It's like working with a hyper-productive, very broadly knowledgeable Dr. know-it-all.
Then again, the aspect I most love about academia --- just creating things joyfully in a sandbox (a metaphor I once got scolded live, real-time, in a tenure position interview of all places lol) --- is now on steroids.
Just printing papers, easy.
Doing good work, still hard.
Funding, harder than ever.
Hard doesn't mean bad.
Hard just means it's worth a good shot.
@decadentquill I'm with you, yet I fear that whoever PAYS currently for that...grueling work... might not be, when they find out "number go up" with AI-vomit too...
@jennfrey The fraud is already here. The post-hoc integrity checks is what will really bite thousands of academics in the butt, years from now (when they are faculty) -- it's going to be ugly
@paulnovosad it's also not like you can simply forecast "this guy will have impact" and the other one not. you hire people who are good at doing their work. if it happens to lead to actual impact vs. a pile of "meh" papers, great! if not, well, we tried.