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Where you read it first | Thursday, February 12, 2026
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Opinion | Viewpoint

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Viewpoint

It’s time to pump the brakes on the AI train

By Keshav Srikant | February 27

On Nov. 30, 2022, the artificial intelligence company OpenAI unveiled its brand new chatbot, ChatGPT, to the world. ChatGPT instantly gained popularity — it was the fastest new app to 100 million active users, beating out apps like Instagram, Snapchat and even TikTok — and it’s easy to see why. ChatGPT can write everything from articulate essays on any topic under the sun to songs in the style of the user’s favorite artists to slam poetry to fiction. It can also explain complex concepts to various audiences, often much more concisely and crisply than humans are capable of, to the point where ChatGPT is being floated as an alternative to tutoring for students. ChatGPT is so advanced that it is now being used by businesses, with firms using it to refine their writing and assist them with content marketing. With all the praise and popularity ChatGPT received in the months since its inception, it's easy to see why Microsoft, a significant investor in OpenAI, announced it would begin integrating ChatGPT’s technology into its search engine Bing on Feb. 7. Google, clearly worried that a modified Bing might pose a threat to their search engine, promptly announced it would soon be releasing its AI bot competitor Bard, integrating AI technology into its own search engine. While both Microsoft and Google’s moves are understandable and can be seen as exciting, the emerging race to integrate AI into search engines could have harmful societal impacts. 

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A Super Bowl commercial’s window to medical privilege

By Julieta Grané | February 27

Super Bowl LVII prompted a wide range of emotions. Rihanna’s spectacular halftime show sparked joy and amazement, from her fantastic backup dancers to her low-key pregnancy announcement. The Chiefs’ turn-around victory in the fourth quarter enthused some and crushed others. For me, one of the Super Bowl commercials caused confusion. From headlines like “Diabetes Patients at Risk From Rising Insulin Prices,” I have learned about crises the diabetic community face. Access to insulin is scarce, expensive and often not adequately covered by insurance. Stories of people rationing their insulin have often ended in grave illness and even death. Yet a Dexcom commercial featuring Nick Jonas highlighted a wildly different diabetic reality. By promoting technology that makes life simple for those living with the condition while neglecting to acknowledge the grim reality of so many with limited insulin access, the ad was an affront to marginalized communities and a gross display of medical privilege.

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Central Asian climate crisis and its global significance

By Dzheveira Karimova | February 24

Summers in my hometown of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan harbor joyous memories of playing under the sun with my friends and traveling with my family to our favorite vacation spot: Issyk Kul. Winters, however, have always been dreadful. It is not because of the lack of warmth and sunshine but rather due to the deadly smog that devours the entire city and keeps all its inhabitants suffocated by pollution and persistent darkness.

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Tick … tick … boom?

By Talia Wilcox | February 24

Time moves forward toward the next exam, next semester, graduation, the future. Unfortunately, that future could be cut short according to the Doomsday Clock, which now sits at 90 seconds to midnight. Despite its somewhat ominous nomenclature, the Doomsday Clock is not a crazy, cultish phenomenon about the world ending, but a scientific measurement of how close we are to global human catastrophe. Scientists at the University of Chicago created the Doomsday Clock in 1947 to warn humans of the dangers of human-made technologies, like nuclear weapons. Manhattan Project scientists who helped build the first atomic bomb opposed its use against people and subsequently formed theBulletin of Atomic Scientists. The Bulletin needed a cover design for the June 1947 edition of their magazine, so they asked artist Martyl Langsdorf. Martyl was married to physicist Alexander Langsdorf Jr., who worked on the Manhattan Project. Hearing countless discussions about nuclear weapons and the risk they pose to humanity, “she sketched a clock to suggest that we didn’t have much time left to get atomic weapons under control.” The Doomsday Clock’s status is reassessed every year by the Bulletin’s Science and Security Board and its Board of Sponsors, a group that includes 13 Nobel laureates. It provides an authoritative assessment of the world’s current risk of annihilation by human-made technologies.

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College basketball and the security dilemma

By Toby Winick | February 23

Every year, I try to win my friend group’s March Madness bracket pool, and I always fall short. The challenge of making a perfect bracket is so close to impossible that Warren Buffett offered $1 billion to any fan that could, but no one did. Therefore, it would be understandable if I was simply bad at making brackets, but I like to think I’m pretty good. So this year, in an effort to make it atop the pool, I found a new source of inspiration: political science.

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Turkish and Syrian governments have failed their people

By Maxwell Shoustal | February 22

Turkey and Syria recently experienced a 7.8 magnitude earthquake, the largest earthquake to have hit land since the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Impacts were felt hardest in Turkey, where the country has experienced a death toll so far of more than 40,000, while the death toll in Syria has climbed to more than 5,800. Although there is little that countries can do to prevent earthquakes from happening in the first place, except for perhaps taking measures to slow the rate of climate change, it is imperative that governments act in their citizens’ best interests by preparing extensively.

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Unpaid internships: The price of privilege

By Bela Silverman | February 14

February: a month to anxiously await the groundhog’s forecast, celebrate Valentine’s Day and prepare for internship season. As winter comes to a close, the last-minute frenzy to edit resumes, write cover letters and find the perfect interview outfit begins, sweeping across college campuses as students strive to finalize their summer internship applications. 

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It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a … weather balloon?

By Maxwell Shoustal and Julieta Grané | February 14

The recent polar vortex left many of us indoors, glued to our screens and inevitably following a bizarre news story developing in the midwest. One headline read, “Suspected Chinese spy balloon spotted over Montana,” which then evolved when Mao Ning, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, claimed that the flying object was a “civilian balloon” rather than a surveillance balloon; this claim is largely disproven by the technical features of the flying platform such as motors, propellers and a much larger diameter than a weather balloon that would fly at such high altitude. Most recently, an unidentified object was spotted flying over Alaska and another balloon over parts of Central and Latin America, with Ning admitting that the balloon flying over Central and Latin America was a “civilian airship.” The object flying over the coast of Alaska was shot down much more quickly than the first spy balloon; the U.S. military was made aware of its presence in the airspace on Thursday evening, and it was shot down midday on Friday. The spy balloon, which was first detected on Jan. 28, was shot down off the coast of South Carolina at the order of President Biden on Saturday. Will this lead to bullet holes permanently tattering U.S.-China relationships?

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Post-'zero-COVID' economic recovery and the problems facing China

By Linda Huang | February 9

Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, China’s economy incurred consistent downward economic trends as a result of President Xi Jinping’s stringent “zero-COVID” policy. Many foreign firms considered leaving China, factory activities were severely reduced, workers were laid off and the entire economy only saw a mere 3% growth during the entire year of 2022 — the second slowest growth rate since 1976. However, with the abandonment of the “zero-COVID” policy and the recent reopening of the country in the final months of 2022, China has made various attempts to revitalize its lackluster economy and return to its pre-pandemic economy. 

The Setonian
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Let’s be smart about regulating AI

By Justin Hong | February 9

Massachusetts is a leader in higher education and scientific discovery, as some of the world’s most prestigious universities and research labs are located in Greater Boston. Companies like Boston Dynamics have been on the forefront of artificial intelligence development since its inception and have been continuously pushing the boundaries of science. Boston’s dominance in the technology world must be coupled with a leading role in responsible use and growth of AI.

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Toward a brighter economic future

By Rohan Vora | February 8

As India’s economy remains resilient in spite of a challenging global environment, it has been called a “bright spot” against a global recession. The country’s large domestic market, young demographics, and relatively low levels of exposure to international markets are some of the reasons why it is partially insulated from global economic headwinds. However, the country’s cumbersome red tape and inadequate infrastructure are significant economic drawbacks. 

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Culture war takes prisoners in the classroom

By Maxwell Shoustal | February 7

Despite the conservative critique that the liberal agenda is negatively affecting the way that young students are taught history, conservatives now seem to be refusing to teach a paramount part of American and world history. The state of Florida, led by conservative Gov. Ron DeSantis, threatened to ban a new Advanced Placement African American Studies course over concerns that it was pushing a liberal agenda and lacked educational value by including topics such as the Black Lives Matter movement and black queer studies. He threatened to do so under the authority of the state’s anti-critical race theory law called the Stop W.O.K.E Act. 

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Classified documents: An unnecessary scandal

By Julieta Grané | February 7

On Nov. 2 2022, President Joe Biden’s legal team found classified documents at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement. The approximately 10 documents contained material marked as sensitive from the president’s tenure as Obama’s vice president and prompted Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel to investigate the president’s handling of the classified documents. Biden and his personal lawyers have been “cooperating fully” with the Department of Justice’s investigation. On Jan. 16, about a week after the appointment of the special counsel, another series of classified documents were discovered at former Vice President Mike Pence’s home in Carmel, Ind. As of the writing of this article, a special counsel has not been assigned to investigate Pence’s classified materials; however, he publicly claimed “full responsibility” for the misplacing of the documents. A third investigation of classified documents in a public official’s personal residence predates the former two and involves former President Donald Trump. This situation is unique in that the response from Trump’s legal time was hostile and uncooperative: Trump spent 18 months obstructing and hindering the DOJ’s investigation. 

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Jacinda Ardern resigns: She had it all

By Esma Erdem | February 6

On Jan. 18, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced her resignation ahead of a general election later this year. She explained her decision in a speech, stating, “I believe that leading a country is the most privileged job anyone could ever have but also one of the more challenging. … I am leaving because with such a privileged role comes responsibility. The responsibility is to know when you are the right person to lead and when you are not.” She also added, “I know what this job takes, and I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice. It is that simple.”

The Setonian
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The fall off: Causes and implications of China’s declining population

By Toby Winick | January 26

For the last few decades, China has been not just one of the world’s strongest economies, but its most populated country. However, recent news suggests that it may have already fallen to second in the race that it has spent decades dominating. The Chinese National Bureau of Statistics announced that in 2022, the country’s population fell by 850,000 to 1.411 billion people, marking the first time the population has decreased since 1961. It is hard to say that this news was unpredictable, considering China’s population structure. Still, this crisis and China’s response will certainly have a large impact on China, its trading partners and its rivals.

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Tufts’ gym isn’t working out

By Maxwell Shoustal | January 26

Anyone who has recently been in the Tufts gym has likely noticed and been irked by the crowding. In some ways, this is not Tufts’ fault. It is not a surprise that gym attendance is heightened in the period following New Year’s Day as New Year’s resolutions are meant to be based on the idea of self-improvement. Logically, going to the gym fulfills this natural desire. However, given the unpleasantries of the current state of the Tufts gym, the administration ought to concoct and implement a more responsible plan for the future.

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