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Large language models still struggle to tell fact from opinion “Large language models (LLMs) may not reliably acknowledge a user’s incorrect beliefs … The findings highlight the need for careful use of LLM outputs in high-stakes decisions in areas such as medicine, law, and science, particularly when belief or opinions are contrasted with facts.” (from TechXplore, November 4, 2025) Go to the source: *Suzgun, M.,…
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Kai R. Larsen, University of Colorado Boulder; Roman Lukyanenko, University of Virginia, and Thomas H. Davenport, Babson College (from The Conversation) Technological innovations can seem relentless. In computing, some have proclaimed that “a year in machine learning is a century in any other field.” But how do you know whether those advancements are hype or reality? Failures quickly multiply when there’s a deluge of new…
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How do people respond–positively and negatively–to political stress? There is no denying that tens of millions of people in the United States–and many millions worldwide–face turmoil, dread, anxiety and real physical and psychological symptoms from the political divisions created by some politicians, their backers, and corporations often motivated primarily by power, greed, and wealth through corrupt means. Instead of public service, these politicians and their…
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How and when does an established viewpoint of a society change? What does it take for a society (a very large group of people) to alter its collective opinion? Is there a “tipping point” for public opinion? A 2018 study using a naming game discovered that when a minority viewpoint became held by “at least 25% of the population,” that viewpoint “was likely to rapidly…
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It can seem–sometimes very visibly and brutally–that we are losing the ability to make and influence decisions about our own lives. That no matter what we do and what we want, forces greater than us and our families and even our communities will steamroll us in order to impose someone else’s will–and that generally means greater power and greater wealth for a set of politicians…
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It is common these days to see people walking their dogs or walking along streets, in parks, staring at or speaking to their smart phones. Yes, they are physically out in the “real” world but, in reality, they are deeply immersed within the artificial world created by AI, social media, and, yes, the Internet. In this hybrid existence, what is real? What actually exists? What…
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Sunita Sah, Cornell University (from The Conversation) You’re in a meeting when your boss suggests changing a number to make the quarterly report look stronger. Heads nod. The slides move on. You feel a knot in your stomach: Do you speak up and risk being branded difficult, or stay silent and become complicit? Most people picture defiance as dramatic outbursts. In reality, it’s often these…
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What do people who support authoritarian leaders believe? Why do some people support political violence? “For over 80 years, political psychologists … have studied the authoritarian personality—a collection of attitudes and behaviors that increase a person’s susceptibility to authoritarian leaders. We have found that authoritarian followers share three tendencies: they obey authority figures from their in-group (called authoritarian submission); they punish rule breakers (authoritarian aggression);…
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“Most people consume many different types of sugars from a variety of foods and beverages in their diet. A high intake of sugar is linked to an increased risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and certain cancers … Sugary beverages are the greatest source of added sugar in the diet, followed by sweets and grains such as ready-to-eat cereals.” [Harvard Health Publishing Staff….
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Jeffrey C. Dixon, College of the Holy Cross (from The Conversation) How will AI affect American workers? There are two major narratives floating around. The “techno-optimist” view is that AI will free humans from boring tasks and create new jobs, while the “techno-pessimist” view is that AI will lead to widespread unemployment. As a sociologist who studies job insecurity, I’m among the pessimists. And that’s…
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