I'd prefer not to discover it this way (i.e. mass AI cheating)- but its nice to have clear empirical proof that professors have been usually adding value via our teaching to our students critical thinking capabilities (and ability to get work afterwards) over the years. futurism.com/future-socie...

Other fields of STEM & the social sciences require regular data collection from the real/physical world to make significant scientific progress- something that a disembodied AI lacks the ability to do for foreseeable future- so no we are pricing this correctly for these fields.

Distillation is basically in laymen terms one AI making multiple (paid) queries from another AI on various topics and learning things from interaction to improve self. In claiming that distillation is IP theft USG is effectively declaring that the Socratic method of teaching is a type of IP theft 😀

The ultimate irony: after years of US AI companies & uberhawks warnings about the alleged dangers of Chinese open source AI, when a rouge AI actually goes rouge & does a cyber attack on a US site it is a US one (an openAI model)- & it is stopped by a Chinese open source AI.

Its rather amazing how so much of the AI debate quickly descends into bad, dumber remakes of basic theological debates in Abrahamic religions about, for example, the characteristics & nature of the Almighty's benevolence to their creations. /1 borretti.me/article/no-o...

My new substack is on other big geopolitical event of June- the temporary takedown of Mythos AI model by Trump Admin over fears that it could accessed by foreign powers. I argue that dispute & U.S. AI policy is based on mistaken belief that US can hoard frontier AI given existence of espionage. 🧵

Dumb excuse by JD Vance for US failure in Hungary. As my research on foreign election interference (like book "meddling in the ballot box") finds, countries don't intervene for candidates that they think are "lost causes". Vance wouldn't have anyway agreed to do this himself if he thought so.

An annoying thing in one of my research topics (foreign election interference/partisan electoral interventions) is that no one remembers past & how it is quite precedented. The US frequently overtly intervened in this blatant manner in elections including a case with a VP in Axelrod's WH era /1

Unanticipated effects of the Iran war in a (still?) globalized world- your local Hong Kong supermarket suddenly has some products pretty obviously meant originally for a Middle Eastern country that were clearly redirected instead at the last moment to Hong Kong.

Attending APSA 2025? Looking for interesting panels to attend on Friday and Saturday afternoon? Interested in public diplomacy? I will be presenting two papers on this topic at APSA (1 on whataboutism vs. shaming & 1 on symbolic public gift diplomacy) that may interest you!

And the winner of the most stupid decision made by the US government in 2025 (so far) is...

If this is what Sam Altman considers Ph.D level AI (an AI that does basic 8th grade math mistakes) I expect his ASI/Machine god when invented to have the intelligence of an average 100 IQ human at most... www.bbc.com/news/article...

Social media is full of ignorance, but the level of ignorance in Middle East history for this prominent commentator on US politics to write this particular tweet...

Prediction- if there is actually eventually a Trump visit to China this year it will be, at least in part, for the early September military parade the Chinese government is planning to do this year marking 80 years to the end of WW2 in the Pacific. Military parade fan Trump won't miss it

David Brooks, an Iraq War supporter, argues in favor of a universalistic US national identity by claiming that being an American requires US FP to promote democracy abroad, continue Ukraine war forever & meddle in other countries politics. No wonder his neocon faction lost to Trump within GOP /1

Left out as an option by Vance: China correctly identified crypto as only good for scams & speculation & banned it to protect citizenry from it- as a smart, welfare enhancing government should www.scmp.com/tech/blockch...

Vast majority of AI experts believe that key assumption of Biden & Trump Admins on AI- that we are about to develop soon AGI/humanlike AI- is very unlikely to happen soon & lack needed tech. A major US foreign policy is based, as usual, on inaccurate premises. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/16/t...

This comedic skit (in English) by a Chinese comedian who is also a good trump impersonator, does a pretty good job of describing humorously Trump's dumb logic regarding international trade

IR scholar BDM famously claimed that rulers in some authoritarian regimes give key supporters selective benefits to maintain their support. Trump's sudden shift on tariffs sure seems to have such a selective benefit via advance info to key supporters so they can recoup losses & even make some gains

When I read this list of options by a senior WH aide (Miran) yesterday it reminded me of Thucydides description in the Peloponnesian wars of how Athens turned the Delian league from a voluntary defensive alliance into a defacto extractive empire /1 www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-st...

Are you a graduate student planning to present a paper at the 2025 APSA conference on an IR/Foreign Policy topic? Need some funds to cover costs of attending? APSA's Foreign Policy section travel grant is there just for you- Apply Now!

New talking point by Trump Admin: US (also) imposed high tariffs on Cambodia, one of the poorest countries in Asia w/17 million ppl, because Cambodia supposedly stole trillions of dollars from American workers. The level of shamelessness is simply out of the roof... /1 x.com/RapidRespons...

The Department of Politics & Public Admin at HKU is hosting an empirical research conference May 16-17. We aim to bring together scholars doing exciting, cutting-edge research in Asia & beyond. PPA will cover transport & accommodation for nonlocal presenters.Details attached & link in tweet below:

The hypocrisy of the Trump Administration in sanctioning any foreign officials whatsoever for corruption while in office* is truly out of this world... *(irregardless of whether claims are true or not...)

A headline I didn't expect to see in my lifetime in a mainstream BRITISH newspaper- the 20th century is truly and definitely over... www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2...

One of the nicest things at #ISA2025 was getting at @fpa-isa.bsky.social reception for my reviewing of some articles for the @fpajrnl.bsky.social journal a free t-shirt by FPA editor Brian Lai. some more nice gestures like that by academic journals & they will find it much easier to get reviewers.

Are you at the #ISA2025? Curious about what does the Russian (& UK) publics think about interference by their governments in foreign elections elsewhere in the world? Today at 1:45 (MC72) you will have an opportunity to find out!

Revenge is a dish best served cold- Greece edition

Lots of good reasons to oppose Musk & team's actions in US government-but after 2024 complaints of US becoming a gerontocracy, framing issue w/Musk's team as being young dumb. Do Democrats want, post Tiktok debacle, further alienate genZ by implying unworthy of significant involvement in politics?

This Kirk quote on why US should take Greenland sounds like its taken verbatim from a historians book on US fighting Spanish-American war b/c of masculinity issues. change "low testosterone" language to older equivalent term "femininized male" and this could be say a 1897 quote by Henry Cabot Lodge😮