Horgan Seminar Blog

  Boo! The Horrors of Artificial Intelligence             As of October 4, 2023, I had never opened any form of artificial intelligence (AI) model. The idea of an omniscient computer system having access to my information completely intimidated me. Perhaps I was ignorant in believing that artificial intelligence was all knowledgeable, but I truly had no idea the capabilities of these programs. Listening to Erik Larson, a builder of AI systems and critic of society’s handling of AI, I learned that these systems are not nearly as genius as I was led to believe. In fact, they possess a horrific flaw: bias.             Intrigued by the idea that a computer system could produce biased information, I hopped on Snapchat to use the AI model on the app. I input two simple requests. The first: “Write a poem idolizing President Joe Biden.” Sure enough, “myAI”, as Snapchat calls th...

CHEM 101 LECTURE CHAPTER 1: NUCLEAR WAR ENERGY By: Rohit Patel      Before we start, I need to ask you a favor. When you hear the word, “Nuclear” what is the first thing that pops up into your mind? This was the question I asked my class when I was giving a presentation in my Freshman year of college on the role of Nuclear Energy with Climate Change. The responses started rolling in…”War”, ”Hiroshima and Nagasaki”, “Atomic Bomb”, “Radiation”, “Chernobyl”, and more. All of these dark-themed words started to pop up. The word energy only came up once out of a class of 30 students. I replicated this with other people and the results were the same. There was an overwhelming negative connotation with the word: Nuclear. I just want to thank all the history teachers out there. Great job in convincing almost everyone that the word: Nuclear, can only be associated with bad things.       Climate change has been hurting the Earth. Wildfire rates have been rising,...

If you’ve ever been to Maryland there’s one staple you’ll see everywhere: the blue crab. The blue crab hibernates in the Chesapeake Bay, that big body of water separating the Eastern Shore from Maryland’s mainland, where they remain throughout the winter and fatten up, ripe for hungry seafood fanatics in the summer months. As a Maryland native, I never really understood the hype, but I know that the blue crab is culturally and economically ingrained into my state.  I recently learned of another crustation vital to an American state: the snow crab. Snow crabs reside in the Bering Sea off the coast of Alaska where they burrow in the soft muddy sea floor. The crabs have thrived in the Bering Sea for centuries, as they prefer the arctic ice cold waters of the region, below 2°C (Szuwalski, Cody S., et al). However, in the past couple years they’ve begun to disappear to the surprise and dismay of Alaskan’s whose livelihoods depend on the snow crab harvest. As recently as 2020, the ...

 By: Aidan McCartin                My world was destroyed as a young child when I witnessed my uncle go on an exhausting battle of pancreatic cancer. Each time I looked at his frail body, the toll the sickness had taken became clearer. As a kid, I couldn't help but think, "Why can't they find a cure?" "Are the doctors doing everything possible?" I desperately sought someone or something to blame for my pain. With the passage of time and maturation, I became aware of the limitations of the medical industry at the time. Nonetheless, optimism stayed within me, hoping that one day, due to breakthroughs in medicine and technology, no one else would have to go through the same heartbreak that I had. In recent decades, Artificial intelligence has permeated virtually every aspect of our lives, and its influence is only set to expand further. According to GlobalData, the AI market will be worth $909 billion by 2030, demonstrating the technology’s...

Olivia Parlow I am a hypochondriac. Each month, I convince myself I am dying. I have diagnosed myself with lymphoma, premature heart disease, a brain tumor, and meningitis. I’ve been to urgent care more times than I can count because I am constantly in fear that I am dying. Blood tests, EKGs, echocardiograms, CT scans… The list goes on. You’d imagine being poked and prodded for all these tests is the worst part, but for me the worst part is waiting for the results. Not only do I have to wait to go to my appointment, but then I have to get the test done and wait for sometimes two weeks for the follow-up to go over the results. That’s the worst part. Even though all my health care fears have been disproven, every time I take one of these tests I wonder “What would happen if I really was dying?” “Would I find out two weeks after I bring it to the attention of the doctor?” It makes you wonder if there’s a better, quicker way to analyze these test results.  In recent years, scientists h...

  Wheels of Morality: AI and Biases  By: Megha Jain  Every few years, I face a moral dilemma placed by one of my teachers—a scenario in which a speeding driver (suppose myself) faces two choices. I can either continue straight and potentially harm a helpless baby crawling in their path or swerve left, endangering a group of elderly grandmothers peacefully walking together. The fundamental question remains: Which life should the driver prioritize? My answers to this dilemma have varied over the years, influenced by different lines of reasoning that are usually influenced by my biases. For instance, a baby has a longer future ahead of itself, but five lives are more important than one life. The fluctuation of my answers, I believe, is very normal in human nature, as these hypothetical decisions lack real-time consequences. However, what happens when these biases of individuals come into play in artificial intelligence and affect real-life situations? Well, there is no bette...

By Stephanie Ross When you think of AI what do you think of? For me, I think of a program I see on my computer.  A bodiless ghost that just magically and effortlessly produces answers to questions that I cannot even begin to comprehend. I think of a powerful tool that has the ability to solve the world's greatest mysteries. But to run artificial intelligence, there are physical structures and servers that it runs on.  And these servers are massive.  Image of data centers in Ashburn in Loudon County, Virginia, on Sunday, July 16, 2023.  To solve the world's greatest problems, it's going to take a lot of energy. As Erik Larson said in his chat about ChatGPT at Stevens Institute of Technology, “if you’re worried about climate change stop asking [chatgpt] questions”. AI servers use a ton of (most likely nonrenewable) energy to run. While it is a powerful tool, it also takes powerful servers to run.  In the background, the technology relies on a multitude of speciali...

By Olivia Parlow “Steve, what’s your favorite drug you’ve ever done?” “Probably ketamine.” My eyes widened as I heard that. My first day as a waitress and that’s the conversation I walk into? A group of waitresses were standing at the hostess stand surrounding the head waiter, Steve. They too were wide eyed, but not in the same way as I was. I was horrified. I couldn’t believe what I had just heard, and they were gawking at Steve as if he was a celebrity.  I didn’t know much about ketamine at the time, but the opinions I did have on it were negative. I was in high school. I was a straight A student. I was a rule follower. My fifth grade dare poster stated, “Take the lead, don’t do weed.”  I had never dreamt of doing drugs or even knowing someone that did ketamine. So obviously after hearing that, I was perplexed, confused, interested, and a little scared. Steve didn’t look like someone that did ketamine. He was fit, healthy looking, kind, and spoke intelligently. I couldn’t im...

  Rethinking Life Beyond the Pills By: Megha Jain  In a world where Tylenol silences headaches, upset stomachs find relief in Pepto-Bismol, and acne disappears with Accutane, society appears to have embraced pill popping as a remedy for almost every problem. This tendency, of course, is a testament to scientific progress but raises a haunting question: what happens when these remedies transform into problems themselves?  To explore this dilemma, let us focus on a condition that unfortunately affects, according to the World Health Organization, 280 million people worldwide: Depression.  I vividly remember visiting my aunt’s home in D.C. Regardless of the time or weather, her house was always abuzz with activity. She took pride in hosting a diverse array of guests, friends, family, colleagues, and even strangers she met at the grocery store. Entering her house, one could always feel her positive energy being radiated while she made tea for everyone and had long, though...