Economist Writing Every Day

I was pleased to be a (virtual) guest speaker for Plateau State University in Nigeria. My host was (Emergent Ventures winner) Nnaemeka Emmanuel Nnadi. The talk is up on Youtube with the following timestamp breakdown:

During the first ten minutes of the video, Ashen Ruth Musa gives an overview called “The Bace People: Location, Culture, Tourist Attraction.”

Then I introduce LLMs and my topic.

Minute 19:00 – 29:00 is a presentation of the paper “ChatGPT Hallucinates Nonexistent Citations: Evidence from Economics“

Minute 23:30 – 34 is summary of my paper “Do People Trust Humans More Than ChatGPT?”

The final 20 minutes is a discussion of the use of AI in academia. I got a question about student use of AI. Since I personally don’t rely on writing assignments and teach in-person, I responded to this change by doing less computer exams and running my first ever Scantron form in the Spring of 2024. This created work for me, however I really care about assessing learning in 200-level classes. My “solution” is not for all instructors. I have not taught online since I was forced to in 2020.

The case for techno-optimism is that it’s not like the laws of physics prevent us from using laptops for secure testing. We are just running a little behind our own innovations. (Education complex behind Silicon Valley) Someone please make it idiot-proof for me to run a secure test. A product called LockDown Browser might already be good enough for in-person proctoring. There are some companies trying to catch up to the needs of teachers and I can say that those are the products that professors will be adopting in this decade.

The video has minor issues with sound quality, as often happens with live recording. Thanks to my hosts and hope you enjoy. It’s geared toward academics who might be beginners with LLMs.