Judge decides case based on AI-hallucinated case law

[Dannyalcatraz]

Yes, it happens -- maybe the professor wrote the best book available on a specific topic, after all -- but I certainly wouldn't feel comfortable peddling a book I'd written myself to students.

I’ve been in that particular situation several times. When I was an Econ major, not only were the school’s own professors high flyers, the visiting professors were literally some of the most famous academics in their fields- the guy I took 101 with was literally the man whose book was the #1 Econ textbook in the English speaking world. My Anti-trust prof gave us a week off when he testified at the Time-Warner merger hearings in DC.

And our Philosophy department was pretty much the same.

(Yes, I was a dual major.)

IME, the only one who abused the power of his syllabus had been the #2 man under U Thant at the UN, and put 6 of his books on our Poli-Sci 101 reading list, of which we only really used 1 or 2. I mean, the info in the books was stunning, but he got an extra $400 or so out of every student he taught that class to.

 

[billd91]

I’ve been in that particular situation several times. When I was an Econ major, not only were the school’s own professors high flyers, the visiting professors were literally some of the most famous academics in their fields- the guy I took 101 with was literally the man whose book was the #1 Econ textbook in the English speaking world. My Anti-trust prof gave us a week off when he testified at the Time-Warner merger hearings in DC.

And our Philosophy department was pretty much the same.

Yeah, it happens - and would it really be surprising that someone who is prominent or at least advanced in a field they're teaching might have also written about it? And if their work is current and reasonable quality scholarship on the topic, why not include it on the syllabus and delve into it as a source for the class? I wouldn't consider that corrupt or abusive - not like unnecessarily padding the syllabus or producing a deficient text just to sell it to their own students would be.

 

[jian]

The whole “you must buy and use the book your lecturer wrote” thing strikes me as stupid and corrupt, even though I know it’s widespread in academia (certainly in North America, not sure about elsewhere but I’m guessing yes). Surely everyone should be directed to whichever book is best for the subject? Anatomy in particular is quite objective and in no way philosophical: you just want a good explanation of the principles and lots of good diagrams (also, lots of practical dissection time).

Looking back at medical school in the U.K. in 1993-1997 we weren’t set texts at all - we went to lectures in physiology, biochemistry etc (anatomy was mostly dissection, six of us working on one corpse) and we were offered discounts on common textbooks, which in many cases turned out not to be the best textbooks, so if you had money you ended up buying those as well if you found out which they were. I was set texts for my masters in Epidemiology in 1998, and they were useful. At no point were any of my books written by any of my lecturers or supervisors, apart from one book on statistics which was actually generally considered the best in its field.