Day: May 22, 2024

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/e/OS Review: This Operating System Is Better Than Android. You Should Try It

https://www.wired.com/story/e-os-review/

Google’s Android mobile operating system is open source, which means anyone can, in theory, build their own mobile operating system based on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). Why, then, are there not many different versions of Android to choose from?

Well, the good news is that there are a few alternatives to Android—some of them are excellent if not better than the version of Android that ships with your smartphone. But the reason there are only three or four good options highlights the fact that there is more, much more, to the mobile experience than the operating system.

Android’s operating system is open source, but it runs device-specific drivers and Google’s various Play Services application programming interfaces (APIs) with a suite of built-in apps for basic functionality. All of this stuff is another layer atop the Android operating system, and it’s this layer that’s very difficult for other projects to reproduce. It’s not hard for projects to get the AOSP code running, but it’s difficult to create a great mobile user experience on top.

One project that has created a great user experience on top of AOSP is /e/OS. For the past six months, I’ve used nothing else, and I am here to say that the world of Android alternatives has never been better. If you’re looking to get out of the Google box, come on in, the water’s fine.

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Android Alternatives

It’s worth pausing here to answer the question of why you’d want to use an Android alternative like /e/OS. Despite my general dislike of surveillance capitalism, it was not privacy-related issues that initially drove me from Android but poor user experience. I got tired of Android’s constant updates. Every time I picked up my phone, the internet was ridiculously slow because Android was downloading yet another update and prompting me to install it. I lived through Windows 98; once was enough.

This was some years ago, and I did not know about /e/Os. When I decided to ditch Android, I installed LineageOS (probably the best-known Android alternative) and never looked back. LineageOS is a solid platform and provides a good set of basic applications. I never had any trouble with the open source apps I primarily rely on, nor did I have much trouble with the handful of proprietary apps I use. Outside of work, I don’t depend on or use any Google services, so my transition from stock Android was smooth.

However, due to my position at WIRED, I still needed to install the Google Play Services layer on LineageOS to access the apps I needed for work—Slack, Airtable, and Gmail. While I like LineageOS, the fact that Google was still embedded into my device bothered me, because my perspective changed. The boot screen was what did it.

via Wired Top Stories https://www.wired.com

May 22, 2024 at 02:05AM

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Emory University awarded two students $10,000 for their AI study tool, then suspended them

https://www.engadget.com/emory-university-awarded-two-students-10000-for-their-ai-study-tool-then-suspended-them-120026233.html?src=rss

Individuals and organizations are still struggling with how and how much to integrate AI into daily life. Rarely has that been more clear than a case out of Emory University in which the school went from awarding students with an entrepreneurship prize worth $10,000 for their AI-powered studying tool to suspending them for it, 404 Media reports. No, the students didn’t suddenly misuse the tool, known as Eightball, in any way; they did just as they said they would, and all the while, Emory promoted them — until they didn’t.

Eightball allowed students to turn any coursework or readings into practice tests or flashcards for studying. It also connected to Canvas — the platform professors at Emory use to share course documents with their students. A demo video for Eightball called it similar to ChatGPT but trained on Canvas courses, looking at everything from lectures to slides, rather than students having to upload each PDF individually to the tool. 

Emory’s Honor Council accused Eightball’s creators of cheating, plagiarizing and helping other students violate the Honor Code in November 2023 and the duo shut the tool down. The Council also claimed Eightball attached to Canvas without permission, despite it being stated during the awards competition in Spring 2023. The body launched an investigation into the students, which found that Eightball hadn’t assisted with cheating and that the student creators had never lied about its capabilities.

Yet, the Honor Council recommended a year suspension for one of the students, Benjamin Craver, and expulsion for the other (who ideated Eightball). The Council’s director called the situation "unprecedented" due to the harm it could cause at Emory. Craver was eventually suspended for the summer and fall 2024 semesters — after which he would need to apply for readmission. He was also given a mark on his permanent record and required to complete an educational program. His co-creator received a one-year suspension.

Craver filed a lawsuit on May 20 against Emory detailing how Eightball came to be, teachers’ support and use, articles promoting it in the university’s newspaper and that the students had always been transparent in its use. Among other evidence, the lawsuit also shares words of support from the associate dean of Emory’s business school about Eightball following the award and her choice to connect the students with an outside entrepreneur, an Emory Alumnus. "While nothing about Eightball changed, Emory’s view of Eightball changed dramatically," Craver’s lawsuit states. "Emory concedes that there is no evidence that anyone has ever used Eightball to cheat. And to this day Emory advertises Eightball as an example of student innovation and entrepreneurship."

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/3vZkiLS

via Engadget http://www.engadget.com

May 22, 2024 at 07:06AM