Weekly Media Update

Week of July 24, 2026

A Crash Course in AI

How is artificial intelligence evolving? How does it even work? Questions like these brought 75 Penn faculty members out for a hands-on AI training spanning two days in June. “Every professor is grappling with questions around this technology and what it means for their teaching and research,” says Bhuvnesh Jain, who created and oversaw the successful “How AI Works” program. “The level of interest was impressive. Ten minutes before we started, every seat was filled and nearly everyone stayed until the end of the day.”

Can AI Detectors Be Trusted?

AI detectors trained on human prose can flag straightforward syntax and a measured tone as machine-generated. “An AI detector should not be used as the sole mechanism for determining whether someone has violated a policy and then sanctioning them,” said Chris Callison-Burch. He also calls for full disclosure that an AI detection tool will be used. “If you adopt a no-AI policy and a detector flags text, the next step is to have a conversation with the person. Otherwise, you will accuse innocent people of cheating.”

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