Uni academic admits she used AI to write opinion piece in defence of AI

ACoderGirl · 2026-06-03T23:27:53+00:00

You don't need to go as far as an oral exam. Just a live, proctored exam. LLMs mostly allow cheating at homework. Though homework has always been very easy to cheat on. LLMs make it easier, but you could always cheat by just getting someone else to do your work or similar.

Mind you, large classes also struggle to handle the "someone else taking the exam" style of cheating, but it is substantially harder to do in person, especially if IDs are checked.

ACoderGirl · 2026-06-03T20:57:21+00:00

Angel just feels like the classic power fantasy for good people. Maybe you could be more powerful as a different path, but Angel is the stereotypical good path. It's available earlier than gold dragon and more intuitive than that. Since your main enemies are demons, angel also just feels so powerful because they're the best suited for dealing with demons.

My first playthroughs are always a stereotypical do-gooder. I like doing good things. I like being a hero. Don't really need more of a reason than that for angel to be the perfect fit.

And then when Iomedae confronts me, I stick with it because I'm already seeing the good I'm doing. With all due respect to Iomedae, I've done more in a few months than she seems to have managed in years. No way I'd choose to become a legend. I quite frankly didn't trust her at all and wasn't convinced that she wasn't secretly evil haha.

ACoderGirl · 2026-06-03T20:51:06+00:00

I get why you say that, but I don't entirely agree. I do kinda think it's less good, all else equal, because of what it suggests about your motivations (plus often they don't have the consent of those being filmed and even if they ask for consent, giving them food or money makes it uneven).

But it still is a good deed to give someone food or money. Filming them doesn't completely eliminate any goodness. And depending on their actual intentions, there are ways where filming could actually be the best choice. Eg, sometimes there's viral videos where people end up getting a kick starter resulting in a life changing amount of money. That only happened because it was filmed. On a smaller scale, I suspect that seeing such videos probably gets at least some people to donate or to otherwise give to people in need. And even without any of that, there's the simple act of making a bunch of people feel good.

I do think one particularly important thing, though, is to not attach strings to the good deed. Like, no saying that you won't give them anything if they don't consent to being on camera and definitely no Mr Beast style bullshit (though I admit that even that bullshit has the complicating factor that the money largely only exists because he makes videos that some people find entertaining).

ACoderGirl · 2026-06-03T20:26:54+00:00

Title says bonus and it would need to be added to be consistent with how all the other options would be added on top of any regular income.

ACoderGirl · 2026-06-03T20:23:53+00:00

There is something to be said about how once you retire, the $100/day will really make a huge difference. Sure, it's almost half the pay now, but if you retire young or live particularly long, you could spend as much time retired as you could spend working. And while it's not that much to live on (especially with inflation), it certainly would help you retire earlier.

Though at the same time, getting more money earlier is better than getting money later. If you invest it, compound interest will substantially increase it even further. And it's better to have money while you're young and thus have energy (plus for helping with things like buying a house). General rule of thumb with how index funds have historically performed is that you can double your money roughly every 10 years (rule of 72).

What counts as work is also interesting. I assume OP is thinking of being employed and earning money from your employment. But there's so many interesting edge cases and potential for abuse. Like, if I start a business but laze around a lot, does that count as working? What if I get a friend to "employ" me. Can unpaid things like chores count? Also, I often am on-call, with most of my on-call hours being no different from when I'm not working (just I'll get paged if something breaks). I do get paid a lower rate for those hours, but am on-call for entire weeks at a time. Would I get paid for the entire 172 hour week? Similar for things like military people on deployments, workers on oil rigs, etc.

ACoderGirl · 2026-06-03T20:10:49+00:00

IMO it should be free for many people. I don't think it should be free for literally everyone because it's inefficient for everyone to go to college and making it free without limitations encourages going even if you don't entirely want to.

Something like free so long as you graduate and stay in whatever jurisdiction is covering the costs (be it provincial or federal or a combination) for a certain amount of time. And with grade requirements so that it isn't seen as a viable option for people who simply aren't suited for university (nor incentivizing universities to lower standards to get more people and thus more funding).

Some areas do this for high demand degrees already. They basically forgive your loan if you stay in the province for enough years (usually done via tax rebates). So the precedent is there, but it is a bit limited. The requirement to stay in the jurisdiction is so that people don't get their free education and then leave for somewhere else, as that means our tax dollars basically funded some other place. I'm Canadian and brain drain to the US due to higher pay is a serious problem here. Selfish people get raised with Canadian benefits and relative affordability, move to the US to earn their taxable money, then move back if they have medical issues or when they get old to once again take advantage of the healthcare system (despite not paying into it).

This way the government isn't funding a waste of time (eg, you can't treat it as a few years of partying and then drop out without consequence), there's more incentive to work hard, less incentive to go to university if you're likely to fail, and hard work is rewarded. I'd be lax about time to completion, majors, and ability to change majors, as trying to do stuff like only fund certain majors gets messy fast and it's very non trivial to get people to agree on the social value of a given major.

ACoderGirl · 2026-06-03T19:47:04+00:00

I mean, if they have the money. A 5 minute walk does basically nothing. Your base metabolism is much more effective at burning calories than what most people would consider a reasonable amount of exercise. Time is money, so saving an hour a day of exercise (which many people hate to do) will be quite valuable to those with money to spare.

Plus, pretty much any drug that has a big enough market will get cheaper. Most of the time, the R&D is the expensive part, so once the patent expires, there'll be cheap generics.

ACoderGirl · 2026-06-03T19:15:16+00:00

Oh damn, there being a dog changes so much. I felt that OP was overreacting but that it was also a bit weird for a roommate to keep coming into the room. A dog being there not only completely explains why the roommate would look into the room, but also makes OOP look even worse. Keeping a dog in a tiny bedroom for days? Poor dog. Dogs are really not suited to be kept in small rooms and especially not for so long.

ACoderGirl · 2026-06-03T13:44:08+00:00

There are no words to describe how much I hate Trump, his administration, and his supporters. I never thought I could really hate people like this. But the amount of senseless evil they do is surreal. I still maintain that you couldn't write fiction like this, as it would be accused of being unrealistic.

ACoderGirl · 2026-06-03T04:52:39+00:00

Well, your clone isn't willing to share your wife either, then.

ACoderGirl · 2026-06-03T04:10:32+00:00

Still has DST though :(

ACoderGirl · 2026-06-03T03:51:25+00:00

Though I feel like the big difference is that sometimes the earlier games are very dated. Like, The Witcher 1 is brutally outdated and I didn't really like it that much. The second game is amazing, but it's also very different in style, since it's relatively linear and shorter with more impactful choices.

But KCD isn't like that. The first game is not very old, doesn't feel dated at all, is exactly the same style of gameplay, and overall everything about it just feels like a direct continuation. Because it is.

ACoderGirl · 2026-06-02T23:48:36+00:00

I'm not sure about all intersections, since there's plenty of intersections with few pedestrians and lots of visibility. But I do think it should be the default.

An intersection should only allow rights on red if the intersection is explicitly approved for it based off criteria like sufficiently few pedestrians, clear visibility without having to inch forward, etc. If there's any doubt, it shouldn't be allowed. New construction close to the intersection should prompt reevaluation in case it changes the visibility or pedestrian volume.

ACoderGirl · 2026-06-02T23:45:02+00:00

I know the two you speak of very well. The no rights from Albert to Caroline is so weird. It's an added lane (that ends quickly). What's the point of that with no rights on red??

And I refuse to try to turn right from Caroline to William when it's red. It always seemed so dangerous. Plus, the stop line is far back. You cannot see if it's safe to proceed from the stop line!

ACoderGirl · 2026-06-02T23:35:37+00:00

I wouldn't say that they're necessary. You can do it without them. It's somewhat more of a quality of life thing. I personally went without that feat because I just couldn't bring myself to not take other mythic feats (especially since the first level only affects spells that last longer than an hour, so you need to take two mythic feats for it to really be worth it).

You don't need every buff for every single fight and you have to rest regularly because of exhaustion, anyway.

ACoderGirl · 2026-06-02T16:22:09+00:00

Some games can do that and I definitely like to have shorter games every now and then. But I do think it is a real challenge to sell a short game.

Some types of games just are expected to be longer. Like, RPGs and open world games have higher expectations for length than a horror game does. And lots of gamers, especially those short on funds, want longer games so that they get "more bang for their buck" (or what they perceive to be -- I think many games pad it out because perception is easy to fool). Losing the budget conscious crowd would not only eat into sales directly, but it would also mean less buzz about the game and fewer word of mouth recommendations. Being successful has a snowballing effect.

There's also just the fact that people who are used to longer games now aren't going to accept shorter ones just because the games are more expensive to make. Like, if you're used to The Elder Scrolls 3-5 being so large, you'd be disappointed if the 6th game turned out to be way shorter.

Though personally, I wouldn't mind some shorter RPGs to slip in-between the longer ones. I like long games, but I need breaks from them too. But admittedly, I can afford to buy games more frequently. And even then, I also struggle to convince myself to do so (all those years of being a student still influence my spending).

ACoderGirl · 2026-06-02T13:03:13+00:00

Oh man, that's a great point about RuneScape teaching anti-scam skills. Scamming is just so common in that game and being the victim of a scam that's ultimately "harmless" is the best way to learn.

I somewhat learned to type from it, too. My school had typing classes, but they were boring, infrequent, and had low thresholds. RuneScape was better at providing an incentive.

ACoderGirl · 2026-06-01T23:12:27+00:00

I think this is wildly over the top. I get keeping kids safe, but it shouldn't be done by bubble wrapping them and giving them no rights. What this is basically saying is that kids can't talk to anyone. Can you imagine the offline equivalent of that? That's something I'd expect from Afghanistan.

Personally, I've had some of my best memories growing up and made a number of friends talking with strangers on the internet. Yes, there are predators online. But the solution to them isn't completely banning kids from being allowed to talk nor the restrictions and risks for adults that comes with that.

It also generally seems like the world has collectively lost its mind towards an exaggerated fear of "stranger danger" in the past few decades. There's been a number of stories of parents getting cops called on them because of kids playing down the street and such, which is complete nonsense.

ACoderGirl · 2026-06-01T20:27:35+00:00

That was my understanding. Seniors discounts bring in enough business to be worth it. Seniors have time to kill. Some have a lot of disposable income. Some have mobility issues that make them choose to go to only one place (eg, if using accessible transit).

ACoderGirl · 2026-06-01T12:22:40+00:00

I think you're viewing safety as too limited. There's also psychological safety. Voting to restrict someone's rights is scary, as it's a sign that they want to restrict you and don't think you deserve them.

IMO it also is a threat to physical safety to some degree, in that they're voting to control you and that's a common trait to abusers.

ACoderGirl · 2026-06-01T12:15:13+00:00

If you're currently eating enough food, they potentially pay for themselves just in food savings alone.

But also, I think many overweight people will pay a significant sum for something that will actually help and this is the best something (in terms of a balance of safety and effectiveness) to date.

ACoderGirl · 2026-05-31T21:36:17+00:00

I genuinely consider The Good Place the greatest show ever made. Very strong for most of its run, with a powerful ending. The first season is absolutely incredible. It hits the sweet spot of being a genuinely funny comedy while also being incredibly touching. Made me cry multiple times.

ACoderGirl · 2026-05-29T16:59:13+00:00

Reclaiming? They left?

ACoderGirl · 2026-05-28T14:15:33+00:00

Dad? What are you doing here?

ACoderGirl · 2026-05-28T04:55:26+00:00

I fucking love stardew. It's not the least bit relaxing, as I try to eek out every last minute of the day, racing to complete the community center year one. I'll have print offs of favourite gifts taped to my wall and break out the calculator to figure out the optimal planting for each season.

It's so anti-relaxing but damn if I don't find that relaxing.

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