Opinion

In the wake of the revelation that over 2,000 objects have been stolen from the British Museum over a number of years, Angelos Chaniotis, Professor in the School of Historical Studies, discusses the implications that this theft has for the Museum's credibility as a repository of monuments.

With the launch of chatbots such as ChatGPT and Bard, artificial intelligence (AI) has never been more prominently placed in the popular imagination. At IAS, the technology has been the subject of interdisciplinary discussion for some time. This article, featuring comments from scholars across all four IAS Schools, demonstrates the breadth of debate.

IAS Director and Leon Levy Professor David Nirenberg discusses how, after helping invent the atomic bomb, past Director J. Robert Oppenheimer spent decades thinking about how to preserve civilization from technological dangers, offering crucial lessons for the age of AI.

Didier Fassin, James D. Wolfensohn Professor in the School of Social Science, writes for the New Statesman about the killing of Nahel Merzouk by a police officer and the social unrest resulting from it.

Harel Shapira, past Member (2021–22) in the School of Social Science, provides a first-hand account of civilian firearms training.

By Alyssa Battistoni, current Member in the School of Social Science:

"When the Inflation Reduction Act was signed into law last August, it was celebrated as the biggest piece of federal climate legislation ever passed in the United States."

By Christina Dunbar-Hester, current Member in the School of Social Science:

"Ports in the Los Angeles region entered national headlines as a supply chain crisis unfurled during the pandemic. After an initial near-halt to commerce and shipping in early 2020, some of us saw bluer skies and enjoyed cleaner air for a fleeting moment."

By Joan Wallach Scott, Professor Emerita in the School of Social Science: 

"[The Hamline case] is not an example of any tension between diversity and academic freedom, but of the confusion between fair treatment of minority students (respect and care for their well-being) and capitulation to religious censorship. The one does not require the other."