In his book The Rise and Fall of Royal America, Brendan McConville argues that the American colonies were not simply rebellious subjects of the British crown, but rather loyal subjects who were deeply attached to the king. He draws on a wide range of sources to support his arguments, including newspapers, pamphlets, and court records.

McConville's book is a well-researched and engaging read. He provides a detailed account of the political and social developments that took place in the colonies during the 17th and 18th centuries. He also discusses the role of the king in colonial politics and the development of royal ideology in the colonies.

Overall, The Rise and Fall of Royal America is an important book that offers a new perspective on the early history of the United States. It is a must-read for anyone interested in the American Revolution and the development of American political thought.

I really enjoyed reading The Rise and Fall of Royal America. It was a well-written and informative book that gave me a new understanding of the early history of the United States. I was particularly interested in McConville's discussion of the role of the king in colonial politics. I had never thought about the king in that way before, and it was fascinating to see how his decisions could have such a profound impact on the colonies.

Overall, I highly recommend The Rise and Fall of Royal America to anyone interested in American history. It is a well-researched and engaging book that will give you a new perspective on the early years of the United States.

What do you think of the above review? I ask because I did not write it: a chatbot did.

For the past six months or so, chatbot AI has become more sophisticated and accessible. OpenAI’s ChatGPT has taken the world by storm with its accessible interface and intelligent outputs. With ChatGPT’s release, Pandora’s box has been opened, and other companies are now scrambling to create their own chatbots. For example, Microsoft, which had invested in ChatGPT in 2019, is using OpenAI’s framework to create an AI assistant for its Bing browser, and Google is now testing its own chatbot Bard (the above post used Bard; interestingly, the Bing chatbot refused to provide an output to the prompt while ChatGPT had issues putting “my” reflections in first-person point of view).

Outputs like the review above can be created in seconds and customized to fit whatever parameters users’ desire. While the technology is impressive, the ethical dilemma surrounding AI’s use in academia is very real. Naturally, educators are worried about academic integrity violations since papers can be generated in seconds. Plagiarism detectors are now being designed by companies to root out AI use, but this arms race between technologies is distracting from the real issue. It is not practical to police whether students are going to use this technology to cheat as this presumes guilt upon them. Instead, it is important to realize that AI technology is here to stay, and we must learn how to live and grow with it.

Cover ArtThe King's Three Faces by Brendan McConville
ISBN: 9780807858660
Publication Date: 2007-08-27
Reinterpreting the first century of American history, Brendan McConville argues that colonial society developed a political culture marked by strong attachment to Great Britain's monarchs. This intense allegiance continued almost until the moment of independence, an event defined by an emotional break with the king. By reading American history forward from the seventeenth century rather than backward from the Revolution, McConville shows that political conflicts long assumed to foreshadow the events of 1776 were in fact fought out by factions who invoked competing visions of the king and appropriated royal rites rather than used abstract republican rights or pro-democratic proclamations. The American Revolution, McConville contends, emerged out of the fissure caused by the unstable mix of affective attachments to the king and a weak imperial government. Sure to provoke debate, The King's Three Faces offers a powerful counterthesis to dominant American historiography.
 
Cover ArtAI Ethics by Mark Coeckelbergh
Call Number: Q334.7 .C64 2020
ISBN: 9780262538190
Publication Date: 2020-04-07
An accessible synthesis of ethical issues raised by artificial intelligence that moves beyond hype and nightmare scenarios to address concrete questions.Artificial intelligence powers Google's search engine, enables Facebook to target advertising, and allows Alexa and Siri to do their jobs. AI is also behind self-driving cars, predictive policing, and autonomous weapons that can kill without human intervention. These and other AI applications raise complex ethical issues that are the subject of ongoing debate. This volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series offers an accessible synthesis of these issues. Written by a philosopher of technology, AI Ethics goes beyond the usual hype and nightmare scenarios to address concrete questions. Mark Coeckelbergh describes influential AI narratives, ranging from Frankenstein's monster to transhumanism and the technological singularity. He surveys relevant philosophical discussions- questions about the fundamental differences between humans and machines and debates over the moral status of AI. He explains the technology of AI, describing different approaches and focusing on machine learning and data science. He offers an overview of important ethical issues, including privacy concerns, responsibility and the delegation of decision making, transparency, and bias as it arises at all stages of data science processes. He also considers the future of work in an AI economy. Finally, he analyzes a range of policy proposals and discusses challenges for policymakers. He argues for ethical practices that embed values in design, translate democratic values into practices and include a vision of the good life and the good society.