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So, this is kind'a crazy... One of the unexpected side effects of the Congressional hearings into antisemitism at Harvard University was the discovery of significant plagiarism in the (minimal) academic work of Harvard's president Claudine Gay. More significant was the weird acceptance of such plagiarism and minimal academic work in the academic community.
Here is Bill Ackman's tweet today. It's impressive.
Quote:
The best approach, however, is probably to launch an AI startup to do this job (I would be interested in investing in one) as there is plenty of work to do, and many institutions won’t have the resources to do it on their own. Perhaps more importantly, the donors are going to demand that the review is done by an independent third party.
At the same time, Marc Andreessen describes what he calls the the academic paper quality funnel:
So it appears to me that, at least in the softer areas of academia, you advance by being politically useful, filling out a form, and copypasting some jibberish for a thesis.
And there's never been a mechanism for stopping it. Until now, as the donors might be angry.
It shouldn't be surprising that detecting plagiarism is a really good job for a computer. So I think it's entirely possible that we'll be seeing a housecleaning of the academic community at a very large scale now.
Discussion (65)
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That's a hell of a long "tweet!"
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Bring it on.
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I read something yesterday (I think it was on X), but it was sort of a corollary to this idea. Essentially, the vast majority of research papers are simply to check a box, not to be read, and are read by virtually no one outside of a narrow slice of the academy. The plagiarism scandal is placing these papers with radically insane ideas (to normies) on full display. The result will be many more people aware of just how insanely stupid the academy has become. Hard to assess how correct this view is, but I sure hope it’s one more nail in the coffin.
Damn if my iPad didn’t just suggest a little coffin emoji.
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Why does a college president need to publish papers anyway?
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It’s not just plagiarism: in the “social sciences” the nature and basis and conclusions for most of the studies and research has been suspect for a long time. The data hasn’t been public, the protocols not applied systematically and results cannot be replicated because the subject matter is subjective. Yet that “work” has been the basis for substantial policy positions for decades. Liz Warren wasn’t just famous for her claim to Indian heritage - she was challenged for both plagiarism and falsifying data. And she’s just the first to come to mind. There’s no scientific method in the social sciences.
An advanced degree was supposed to be the result of original work - research and generating original scholarship. Advancing intellectual knowledge. It’s become a lot like writing an app - new arrangements of old material.
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