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As regular readers of this newsletter know, The Conversation is a global network. The concept and first edition of The Conversation began in Australia in 2011. Since then, editions have been born in the U.K., France, Africa, the U.S., Indonesia, Spain and Canada, where I work. Once a year, members of each edition meet in person to discuss a number of ways we can work better to achieve our common mission: Sharing knowledge to inform decisions. Last week, we all met in London.
On Thursday night, after the meetings and whiteboards and PowerPoint presentations were done, we gathered at the Mall Galleries near Trafalgar Square to mark the 10th anniversary of The Conversation’s establishment in the UK. More than 100 people came together to honour the great work done by the British team over the last year. Stephen Khan, founding editor of The Conversation in the UK and now Executive Editor of The Conversation International, spoke about the joys and anxiety of launching the British edition. Current UK Editor Jo Adetunji inspired all of us with a speech about our unique model that combines the best of academia and journalism.
Another great thing about being part of this global network is that we share knowledge and expertise with each other. The UK team helped us when we launched in Canada and has provided advice on non-editorial matters as well, such as when we ran our first donation campaign last year.
I’m now back in Canada, but still basking in the warmth of a great week spent with smart and committed colleagues from The Conversation global network and looking forward to seeing those efforts produce more of the type of content you can read and listen to below.
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Roger Sturmey, University of Hull
These models could help us better understand infertility and early pregnancy loss.
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Kathryn MacKay, University of Sydney
We should think carefully about whether it is ethical to create living human-like beings only to conduct research on them.
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Mend Mariwany; Nehal El-Hadi, The Conversation
People across Latin America are demanding greater political participation. Some countries, including Colombia and Chile, have responded by involving citizens in the making of their constitutions.
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Sahen Gupta, University of Portsmouth
Athletes develop resilience over time, building mental and social skills that act as a shield against the negative effects of adversity and failure.
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Robert Mahari, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Jessica Fjeld, Harvard Law School; Ziv Epstein, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Intellectual property law wasn’t written with AI in mind, so it isn’t clear who owns the images that emerge from prompts – or if the artists whose work was scraped to train AI models should be paid.
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Nello Cristianini, University of Bath
The EU’s attempt to regulate AI is focused on specific risks posed by the technology.
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Collette Schulz-Herzenberg, Stellenbosch University; Robert Mattes, University of Cape Town
Dissatisfied ANC voters were much more likely to switch their votes if they held positive views of an opposition party. However, the problem for the opposition is that few people held these views.
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Paul Giles, Australian Catholic University
Cormac McCarthy, who has died aged 89, was a major American writer with a distinctive voice. In McCarthy’s world, war and violence are primordial realities.
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Rayna Denison, University of Bristol
It’s Keaton’s razor-edged, comedic darkness that allows the film to gather emotional depth.
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Matthew Flinders, University of Sheffield
The House of Commons committee of privileges has called for the former prime minister to be barred from having a former member’s pass, and with good reason.
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