Colombia is trying to use Amnesty International to cool student tensions

Can artificial intelligence help discuss abortion, racism, migration, Israel and females? Columbia University surely hopes.

freedom I learned that the university recently started testing SWAY, which is currently an Amnesty International discussion program in the experimental version. It was developed by two researchers at the University of Carnegie Mellon, and students are identical to opposition views of individual chatting on hot issues and “facilitating better discussions between them”, according to the tool. Website. Nicholas Deepilla, post PhD researcher at CMU who helped develop SWAY, freedom About 3000 students from more than 30 colleges and university have used the tool.

One of these may be close to Colombia.

Possible partnership news comes more than two years after the escalation of tensions in Colombia between students, administrators and the federal government. The university spent years in the controversial center after the controversy: Cooling operations Among the demonstrators supporters of the Palestinians, a series of Police raidsAnd requests from the federal government.

People at Colombia Teachers College tests the effect in order to integrate it in Struggle Deepilla said that the curricula and “bridge building initiatives in Colombia” said. He said there was also interest from other teams in Colombia in using the effect of the Fall 2026 and beyond chapter. “The freedom The company is in contact with the University of Colombia.

Sway puts “artificial intelligence guide” in every chat “asking difficult questions to improve students’ thinking.” The tool “also suggests reformulation” of the language it considers unauthorized. One example discussed a topic placed in Siyay’s Video introduction: Whether the United States should “give priority to Palestinian rights and stop sending weapons to Israel.”

Colombia did not make a comment on the time of publication, even after a request was given more time to respond.

“A pattern repeated by Colombia”

Colombia is making comprehensive changes as part of a $ 200 million settlement with the Trump administration, which aims to combat anti -Semitism on the campus – a settlement that reaches Colombia to Up to $ 1.3 billion In federal financing. You must provide school Amazing quantities of data To the Trump administration, imposing “strict rules against sabotage protests” and “enhancing supervision of international students.” Moreover, Colombia said It will be committed To work with organizations to “create a building dialogue” on the campus. Potential partnership with SWAY AI is likely to be included in this category for Colombia.

It is an example of many when it comes to the university that throws money in students’ differences in an attempt to solve problems without friction, according to the sources of Colombia with which I spoke with it. freedom.

“This is a pattern repeated by Colombia, where our talks are evacuated on politics, history and context,” said Colombia, who asked not to be identified for fear of revenge, freedom. They added: “Colombia, as a place for scholarships and study, outperforms the frameworks and policy of these issues. What the administration is trying to do is framing these” difficult talks “, which were evacuated from the context of the roots, whether at the university or globally.

One place for such conversations is a group called the SLI leadership participation initiative (SLI), which was described as a way to Facilitate dialogue Among the students and senior officials, which held seven meetings last fall and seven last spring. It includes more than 70 manual students by student deans (and they paid thousands of dollars to each of them, according to the Source of Colombia) to meet and “explore the differences in views,” according to the site.

“To a large extent, the secretaries trying to put out the fires in my opinion,” said a source of Colombia.

“One of the constants of the past two years in universities such as Lee was an approach similar to the response to crises in political controversy, opposition and protest,” said Joseph Holie, associate professor in the Classics Department in Colombia. freedom. “What we have is curricula from the world of corporate crisis, police, law enforcement directed to dispute and opposition as if problems should be resolved instead of the basic values ​​that must be proud.”

“Looking for magic lead”

Sui Colin Say publicly The tool is linked to the American intelligence community when it comes to part of its financing and research. Dibella said Soy also received recent funding from the Arthur Feng Davis Foundation, the Snyder Foundation, the Omidiar Network, the tools competition and the Carnegie Mellon University itself.

Deepilla said Sway will share anonymous data with the public and the intelligence community, but not texts or details. “All the data we share is general, so there is no specific pipeline to exchange data with the intelligence community,” he said.

He said the reason for the participation of the intelligence community is that it funds Deepilla’s work after the doctorate. “They have a group of this post -doctorate who finances it every year to implement basic scientific research that may be important for the intelligence community,” Debilla said. “They finance basic research that can concern them, but they are completely classified and uncomfortable research and there is no specific data that is shared with them.”

He also said that although the company does not share students ’texts or answers with the trainers, it shares with them each student’s degree of“ test ”of five questions that they take after participating in a discussion, which was well keen on understanding the logic of discussion.

When asked about the influence, the source of Colombia said: “I don’t trust that Sway will deal with this with any understanding of international policy and power, and it will only be about making people feel better. This really frustrates me, because it is a common step in Colombia.”

In SWAY early experimental studies, the team tested the users on the topic if the 2020 elections were “stolen”. But such discussions stimulate the question: Are it really regular for dialogue, in cases where there is a wrong, or integration together or “influence” on one person closer to a point of view based on wrong information? In what cases the moderation between two opinion is not good – and who decides that?

The “understanding” SWAY test measures success based on the rotation of the poll questions granted to students in groups of about five questions. It includes whether the student has found the debate of value, whether they now have a better opinion than someone on the opposing side, whether they believe that the arguments presented by the other side are better than it was before the discussion, and whether the discussion caused their opinion on the topic of discussion.

“Nearly 50 percent say they actually changed their opinion about something in the discussion,” Debilla said freedom. Although he said this alone is not a measure of success because “they may have changed their opinion towards the falsehood instead of the direction of the truth.” In the end, he said that the SWAY team does not try to make students change their opinions but is looking to make them open to the arguments on the other side, with less hate.

He said: “After conducting these discussions, students become less confident in their own opinions,” adding, “They are approaching each other. They have become more flexible. For this reason we used the word” influence “… We want their opinions to be more flexible to allow the ability to change your mind.”

A possible effect partnership is not the only way Colombia is used to use technology to examine or form student convictions. Also university It is said Using the Schoolhouse dialogues, the tool provided by SAL KHAN is of non -profit to the Khan Academy, to pair high school students with opposite views on controversial topics, then classify each other – Colombia can use these comments in admission decisions.

For Holie, who has also taught a path of workers and knowledge of Amnesty International, there is an influx of collective thinking about the “magic promise of artificial intelligence” that university leadership is not immune.

He said: “Some people are at the top, who … do not do knowledge, creation or education, persuade themselves that this type of program is a magic bullet, and we are at a political moment when everyone searches for magic bullets.” “Everything can be more separate than I think – sorry for freezing – the holy charge of university.”